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Do you still feel tired even after eight hours of sleep? Does fatigue continue to haunt you after a brief rest? Do you feel like an engine deprived of oil that can make it run smoothly and effortlessly?

This feeling occurs too often. It is something that can happen to anybody, including you.

Experts explain this as something that has to do with behavior patterns that we unconsciously develop. There are times in life that we develop a behavior pattern, which we are not aware of until we fall into its bottomless pit. This negative behavior pattern has the tendency to pull down our spirits. It works very similar to the law of gravity – exerting a force that pulls down everything.

The good news is, you can do something about it and elevate your sagging spirits. The change need not be abrupt. The wrong behavior patterns that you have learned can be unlearned by adopting new and correct patterns of behavior.

This is where the challenge lies. Deeply ingrained behaviors are difficult to change, for people always seek the easy route or the comfort of the status quo. It may not be easy, but it can be done. Consider this perspective: Always remember that if you do not do the right behavior, you fuel the habit of doing the wrong behavior.

For example, you hardly have any exercise. The mere thought of going to the gym or taking a walk makes you wince. You snuggle under bedcovers, thinking you can do it tomorrow. You spend the day watching television munching unhealthy food. At the end of the day, you feel awful for having no self-discipline. You promise to exercise the following day. When the next day comes, the cycle stays the same.

Think of it this way: when you miss a workout, it’s not like you just stay at the same level you’re at. You actually take a few steps back. Every time you miss a workout, you have done something to strengthen the habit of not working out. The more workouts you miss, the stronger the negative behavior grows.

How do you change behavior patterns painlessly? You can start small by allotting fifteen to twenty minutes of your television time for exercise time. Try this for about two weeks. When your body is used to this new schedule, you may gradually increase your exercise time to half an hour. This automatically reduces your television time by a total of thirty minutes.

Say you spend most of the time sitting by the window thinking of fears, anxiety, apprehension, and all sorts of mumbo jumbo thoughts entering your mind. Replace this unproductive habit with a productive behavior. You might want to pick up a book and read it, or take your pet dog for a walk (this gives you the exercise you need at the same time). You can also spend idle time in socializing occasionally, doing occasional volunteer work, or just have plain fun with family or friends.

So you see, there are ways of changing behavior patterns. The technique is to do it gradually. Start small with just a few minutes a day for a week or two, increase the time for the weeks, and so on. You will see an amazing transformation in terms of mental, emotional, and spiritual fulfillment after a couple of weeks. The brooding feeling will be lifted and you will feel energized with the new pattern of behavior.

Again, it should be emphasized that for the new behavior patterns to take root, any improvement must be done gradually, giving it time to sink into your life for you to enjoy its long-term benefits.

Attempting to hasten behavioral change by doing it in large doses or in one gulp might not produce promising effects for improvement. Instead, it might lead to pain and frustration that might not give the same motivation to continue with the change process.

A gradual improvement with long-term effects is definitely worth your time and wait.

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Dr. Kornfeld was speaking at a lecture where nine centenarians were in attendance.  Eight of the nine were women.  He asked each centenarian to share their secret to longevity.  Then he asked the audience if they noticed a common thread to the centenarians’ secrets.  No one seemed to notice a common thread.

Dr. Kornfeld noticed one, but only one.  The common theme he noticed was a positive attitude.  No matter what they faced in life; cancer, illness, injuries, etc. they all accepted their challenges and moved on.

Wow, that is powerful!  But, it does not surprise me.  We find the same thing in our fitness and weight loss businesses.

The people who are positive and have a great outlook on life reach their goals, get best results, and are overall healthier.  I’ve been teaching this over the last several years.  I regularly speak to groups, corporations and individuals about their thoughts and mental attitudes.  My primary message is having a healthy mindset; then I talk about exercise and eating healthy.

Iris is a 90 year young woman in our personal training studio who my husband trains two times a week.  Her goal is for strength and balance so she doesn’t fall.  She has such a positive outlook on life.  She dresses in fine clothes to workout.  We compliment her all the time how she looks so nice, and she said when she looks good she feels good.  It’s all in her attitude.

She loves that fact that she exercises with a personal trainer and it makes her feel important. She has also noticed a tremendous amount of benefits many she never expected to experience when all she wanted was a little strength and balance.  Her family is very proud of her also.

Iris hasn’t been the youngest client we’ve worked with.  My husband also trains a 99 year young women.  Molly is full of life and still dances.  Her attitude affects her health and she doesn’t look a day over 80.  Both of our 90 year old clients know the importance of eating health.  They don’t skip breakfast and have a great attitude on life.  They want to make the most of their time left on earth.

Their secret to longevity is healthy eating, exercise and to be happy and positive.

From personal experience, I know how my attitude affects my life, health, business, and relationships.  I’ve seen both sides from clinical depression to working diligently on my positive attitude.  And guess what?

It certainly is more fun and energizing to be positive rather than negative.  It does take effort to maintain a positive attitude on a regular basis, but the effort is so worth the benefits!  Ask the people around me.

Filed under: Tai Chi and Chi Kung | Add Comment →

This report by a successful chiropractor who have discovered tha the very best tool for improving the back strength and overall health of his patients is the use of the Kettlebell! Here’s the report :

After 14 years as a successful chiropractor I have finally discovered what I believe to be the very best tool for improving the back-strength and overall health of my patients. That tool is the kettlebell – something I had never heard of until two years ago. I have to admit that initially they intimidated me… until I needed them for my own injury.

Growing up I was always extremely athletic in high school and college. I lettered in volleyball, softball, and basketball, and I became a Doctor of Chiropractic because I knew firsthand how important a strong and well-aligned body is for physical activity.

As an athlete and a doctor I never experienced any problems with back pain – until about 5 years ago. I was adjusting a very large male patient (6’3” 300lbs), something I never had a problem with in the past because of my use of proper techniques.

Somehow this time was different. When I applied my force into this patient’s body to adjust his hips – nothing moved. I felt like I had just attempted to pass my hands through a pillar of marble. The resulting wave of resistance immediately reverberated through my entire spine. At that moment I knew I was injured.

I did everything I tell my injured patients to do. I stretched, iced, went for massage, received chiropractic care, physical therapy, and acupuncture treatments. Being in the healthcare profession, the treatment I received was the best available. At times I was in the offices of other providers 5-6 times per week.

Frustration with Traditional Methods

The treatments kept my back functioning so that I could do my job but the repair and healing of my body did not progress. If I sneezed it would throw my back into spasms.

If I slept wrong I would have to wear a back support for a week. This was more than pain and inconvenience – my very livelihood was at stake! Nobody wants to put their trust in a chiropractor who clearly has a bad back herself. So I did everything I could to hide and mask my pain from my patients.

Two years into this constant pain I knew I had to try something different. I hired a personal trainer (a former N.F.L. player) who I hoped would whip me into shape. After 6 months, although I gained arm and leg strength, my body did not tone up the way I expected and my back pain did not improve. In fact it got worse. There would be times when I would spend half an hour on the treadmill in the evening and not be able to get out of bed the next morning.

Impressing A Skeptic

About this time I came across a book titled Beyond Stretching, by Pavel Tsatsouline. There was something different here. There were stretches in this book that I had never seen before. Even my physical therapy associates were impressed with this new and cutting-edge material. I had a feeling that Pavel could help me with my back, and hoped this might be the answer to restore my health and the future of my practice.

Fortunately I live close to Seattle because at that time Pavel was visiting the city twice each year. I took his stretching, strengthening and abdominal class. I was impressed – not something easily accomplished because I do body work myself, but also because I had experienced so many disappointments.

After attending Pavel’s classes my stretching improved and my pain was decreasing. In fact, I was so impressed that I encouraged all of my patients and colleagues to attend Pavel’s seminars.

I had patients drive 70-80 miles one-way to attend Pavel’s seminars, and I would bring no fewer than 10 people with me each time. I always made sure to bring my most acute patients – the ones I knew would experience the most benefit by attending.

When Pavel witnessed my third trek to Seattle with patients in tow, he was impressed with my commitment and suggested that I train with kettlebells – round cast-iron weights, like cannonballs with handles. He even implied that I should become certified as a kettlebell trainer to assist my patients.

Well, I was more than slightly intimidated – in my mind there was no way I could throw around this big piece of iron without inflicting further injury. But everything Pavel had showed me so far was helping, and I was intrigued.

I ended up purchasing a kettlebell, but picked it up maybe five times before it began to gather dust at home. I was so out of shape that I would get winded swinging the kettlebell only twenty times. Being an athlete, I think it hurt my ego more than anything else!

One Demonstration Makes All the Difference

Then in October 2004 I was fortunate enough to attend another one of Pavels stretching and strengthening seminars that included a quick kettlebell demonstration. One of the people who spoke was Dave Werner, RKC. He related his experience with severe lower back pain, nerve damage in his leg, and using a cane to walk.

I couldn’t believe it – this man had recovered and looked like an Olympic athlete! Right then I knew I had to give kettlebells another chance. I not only needed to try them for myself, but for the benefit of all my patients that were in the same predicament as me.

I hired Dave to show me what to do, and one month into my training I sneezed — and had NO PAIN!! For almost five years I had been in pain from the slightest movement, and after one month of training with kettlebells I was able to sneeze and not have pain. That may not seem like much to you, but for me it was a miracle.

I started training harder and signed up for the April 2005 RKC. People must have thought I was crazy because I hadn’t exercised in well over a year due to my pain and now I wanted to go and subject myself to three days of Russian boot camp!

The more I trained in preparation for the RKC the more my fitness improved, and my back pain quickly became a thing of the past. I made it to the RKC and survived – believe me, I had lots of sore muscles, but never a twinge in my lower back. I had been given my life back!

Sharing the Secret

When I returned from the training I soon began working with one of my worst back injury patients. The type of patient I see has extreme back pain and most of them have such poor body mechanics and muscle tone that they can’t even do a squat correctly.

They’re afraid to move their body, believing they can prevent spasms by not moving, so I start them out slowly. This particular patient had constant pain and couldn’t do even simple household chores such as vacuuming or cleaning dishes
.
I started her out with the 4 Kg. bell, doing squats and swings in 5 sets of 5 reps each. If you’ve ever lifted the 4 Kg. bell, it weighs almost nothing, but it was heavy enough for her body and started improving her strength. We continued her chiropractic adjustments twice per week to control her pain and prevent spasms. After three weeks I introduced an 8 Kg. bell for one of the five sets, and her spine was starting to hold so I reduced her office visits to once per week.

I have been training her now for five weeks and she has only minimal pain. She recently vacuumed her whole house without assistance – something she had not done in three years. You’ve never seen someone so excited about being able to vacuum the floor!

It’s now been almost two weeks since she needed an adjustment and I’ve added a figure eight with the 8 Kg. bell to expand her range of motion. It’s important for those with chronic back pain to expand their abilities so they don’t give in to the fear of triggering a back spasm. Kettlebells allow this incremental increase, and it builds confidence in patients like nothing I’ve seen before.

Kettlebells – the Missing Ingredient?

I’ve seen the kettlebell workout help one of my associates with his asthma. Another eliminated her wrist and knee pain after 6 weeks of doing kettlebells. Like me, she was very worried about her career as a chiropractor because her wrists kept giving out. Now she is stronger and more confident that she can do her job for years to come.

I’m still amazed at the improvement in back stability that comes with kettlebell training. I feel like a kid again! I can honestly say I am in the best shape of my life – after only 8 months! I now work a full day in my practice and then train people with kettlebells one-on-one and in groups 4-5 nights a week.

I now believe kettlebells to be the single most important tool that can be added to a recovery training schedule. There are too many people out there who cannot enjoy life, who are merely existing because of their back pain. Their abdominals and back muscles are so weak from repeated spasms that they fall apart with any activity. I believe all of them can be helped with kettlebells.

It’s important to start slowly, primarily because of the weakness and lost muscle tone that develops from repeated muscle spasms, but also because of the mental block created by the fear of pain. Kettlebells allow you to do this. I know, because I’ve been there. But at 39 years old I now feel better than I did in my twenty’s, and I can’t wait to see how I will be a year from now. Thank you Pavel for giving me my life back!

Filed under: Fitness, Strength, Workouts | Add Comment →

Guided meditation is used by many people not only to relax from a busy day but also to tune into their own bodies and minds. Since days have become more stressful, the world has become more crowded and more worldly problems have risen, many people are finding comfort, safety and bliss in a few minutes of guided meditation a day.

With the help of a guiding voice, many people who are new to meditation have found it easy to achieve a much needed quiet moment during the day. Guided meditation can help the user to focus his or her thoughts and block out any distractions in order to experience the pleasure of silence for a moment during the day.

The voice assists the user and keeps his or her on track. Guided meditation helps people to follow the stages of meditation, allowing a person to go as deep into the process as he or she decides they would like to go.

The benefits of properly guided meditation can span from relieving migraine headaches to relaxing cramped muscles to a simple moment of pleasure, satisfaction and quiet. Over-stimulation and stress are both problems that many people deal with on a daily basis.

These daily stressful situations and the exposure to too many over-stimulating activities can seem to be normal and accepted conditions that everyone takes for granted as standard. Although most people are dealing with these situations on a regular basis, it doesn’t mean that these situations do not still put stress and tension on the body and mind.

There are many people who may feel stressed and hopeless about their current home or work situation. Most people think that a vacation or a break from their daily lives is the way to relive this stress.

However, a retreat from basic stresses is only a temporary fix from the anxiety of many people’s lives. In order to have the ability to deal with the tensions that life can put on their body and mind, many people are turning to guided meditation to teach them how to handle their daily lives with ease, patience and a clear mind.

By creating a moment in the day to connect the mind, body and soul in a calm and hushed manner, many people are finding their stressful days don’t seem as stressful anymore.

Guided meditation can help a person to realize the many options he or she has when dealing with the daily tensions of the workplace or home environment. By possessing the foundations of guided meditation, the situations that can usually seem impossible to stay calm through can now seem easy to think through and figure out.

Guided meditation is a great way to help a person just beginning the process to concentrate better and easily achieve the full benefits of a meditative moment. Guided meditation can also help advanced meditation students to hold their concentration and learn new and more developed techniques to make their minds and bodies go deeper into the meditative state.

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Acupuncture, as an alternative medical practice, is now making headway in the Western world. It is now accepted as a drug-free treatment and method of stress relief.

Practiced in China for more than 2,000 years, acupuncture is a therapeutic system that makes use of sterilized needles for the purpose of restoring the body’s equilibrium.  The needles are inserted on specific vital points that correspond to a specific internal organ.

The light insertion of the needle into a vital point is supposed to free the flow of internal energy or “chi.”   According to Chinese medical theory, any blockage in the flow of chi in the body’s “energy streams” or meridians can an imbalance in the body — resulting to an illness.  The natural flow of chi ensures a person’s general state of health.

The focus of acupuncture is on restoring harmony in the flow of the chi throughout the body and, in the process, balancing the metaphysical concepts of yin and yang.

Acupuncture is used to treat a wide range of ailments such as nausea, sinusitis, migraine headaches, lower back pain, knee pain, and chronic pain. Ancient Chinese texts also claim that the acupuncture can be used to treat minor mental and emotional problem such as anxiety disorder.

For this reason, some even compare the Traditional Chinese Medicine method of acupuncture to the Western medical discipline of psychology.  Both are seen as similar disciplines or therapy methods that have a positive effect on the mental health of patients.

The true benefits of acupuncture are found in its efficacy as a non-invasive, drug-free means of alleviating a number of physical ailments. It is also used in conjunction with traditional Chinese herbal cures that are perceived to be as effective as modern pills and medication.

Acupuncture is concerned not only with providing cure to specific ailments. It is also used to determine the causes of physical discomforts and illnesses. Acupuncture practitioners make use of body charts that show the meridians or channels where internal energy flows to different parts of the body. These meridians correspond to the Western medicine layout of the central nervous system and circulatory system.

Studies are still being made by Western doctors and other scientists to determine the efficacy of this Eastern alternative form of healing. Even if acupuncture already accepted in different parts of the world as an alternative healing method, some quarters are still skeptical about its long-term effects.

While there are still no research findings that make the curative claims about acupuncture absolutely undisputable, it is interesting to note the depth of understanding that the Chinese had about the inner workings of the human body thousands of years before the formal organization and practice of Western medicine.

Perhaps, one day, scientists will finally prove that the differences between Eastern and Western medicine is found mostly in culture and terminology; and that both systems are actually alike in terms of philosophy and theory in the use of the needle as a tool for healing.

Filed under: Healing | Add Comment →