Harmonia Health

Archive for January, 2010

I know that many of you will be thinking what will meditation do for me, why is it so important and of course ‘I don’t have time to sit around trying to clear my head, I’m busy’. Well let’s be honest here, do you suffer from stress, now think about this a little more, because the answer is yes and if you’re not sure about that read on and think a little more…and don’t forget to check out my recommendation for easy stress relief.

Why Are We All Stressed?

With modern day living comes the hectic and ever demanding pace of live, it’s no wonder that many of us feel stressed and overworked and how many of us take this home with us, how many others feel the impact of the stress we feel?

Our stress and tiredness of everyday life lead us to the feelings of unhappiness, frustration and a lack of patience when it comes to dealing with even the most simple every day routines. Not to mention the impact that all this has on our health, the tiredness that we feel, the ever nagging inner voice reminding us that we need to do this and that and the other. Or the demands of our boss, our clients, our family and friends all add up to making life one big stress ball.

‘I’m stressed out’, ‘work is one big stress’, ‘I’m under too much stress’, ‘the kids are stressing me out’, these are all phrases that we are all too familiar with and it is also an acceptable part of every day life.

How Do I Define My Stress?

Stress is hard to define as it means different things to different people; however, one thing that is perfectly clear to all of us is that stress is a negative emotion, negative energy as opposed to positive.

Stress can be both physical and mental. Physical stress could be the result of a lack of sleep, or a poor diet and even an effect of an illness. Mental stress can be worrying about money, or how you’re going to survive retirement, or from experiencing a devastatingly emotional event such as the death of a family member, or being fired from work.

Our Natural Stress Response System

But did you know that much of our stress comes from less dramatic everyday routines. Obligations and pressures which are both physical and mental are not always that obvious to us and in response to these daily strains our body automatically invokes a stress response which floods your body with chemicals which increases your blood pressure, your heart rate, the blood flow to your muscles, your metabolism and your respiration. All of these responses are natural reactions so that our bodies are ready to react quickly and effectively under high pressure situations, termed fight or flight. Now whilst a stress response is useful in true emergency situations when you need to be on alert, it can considerably wear your body down when constantly active.

We are all continuously reacting to stressful situations, which is termed stress response, but without making adjustments in our lives to counter the effects. Stress can cause physical, emotional and behavioral disorders which affect our health, vitality and peace of mind; and of course it also affects our personal and professional relationships. Stress is also the key cause to many minor illnesses such as insomnia, headaches and backaches on top of the life threatening diseases such as high blood pressure and even heard disease.

It is also very true that every person handles stress differently, take for example a major life decision like changing careers, or moving house. I know some of you are cringing at the thought, but I also know that some of you would relish the thought. Whatever may be overwhelming to some people might actually be seen as a welcome change to others. An even simpler example is sitting in traffic, some people find this too much to tolerate tooting their horns and screaming out for more coffee, whilst others just take it in their stride maybe with the help of a little music, or a happy thought.

So what’s the answer? Well, aside from the inexhaustible amount of drugs available to reduce stress, which include free side effects I may add, there’s one very simple and natural way to reduce stress that takes 10 to 20 minutes of your day and has no side effects, meditation.

Our Natural Relaxation Response System

Earlier I mentioned that the secret to reducing your stress is by making adjustments in your life to counter the effects of stress, well this is done by evoking a relaxation response within you.

A relaxation response is a state of deep rest that is the opposite of the stress response. The relaxation response brings your body back into balance by deepening your breathing, reducing the stress chemicals in your body, slowing down your heart rate and relaxing your muscles. It also increases your energy, improves your focus, relieves headaches and other aches and pains, heightens your problem solving skills and boosts motivation and productivity and the best news is that with a little practice anyone can gain from these benefits.

Rubella is an infection caused by the rubella virus and is commonly called German measles. This condition is not very serious and the symptoms are never as severe as in the case of regular measles. This condition affects children mostly, although older people may also contract the disease. They usually recover in a week or so. It can, however, prove serious for pregnant women especially if it occurs before the twentieth week of pregnancy. The chances of spontaneous abortion become high and the child may also be born with congenital rubella syndrome. A vaccine has been developed for rubella, reducing its incidence. Those at risk are only those who have not been immunized.

The disease is airborne, in other words, it spreads through the air and people are liable to contract it if they breathe in the air that an affected person has sneezed or coughed into. Once the virus enters the body, symptoms are likely to develop after an incubation period spanning 2 to 3 weeks. A fine, pink rash which looks like a tiny lesion usually appears on the face and is similar to the regular measles rash. It then spreads to the chest, hands and feet. The rash disappears soon after barely leaving a scar and other symptoms include mild fever, inflamed eyes, splitting headaches and a runny nose. As regards treatment for this condition, once the disease is contracted, there is no treatment possible and it must be allowed to run its course. The treatment involved is not so much to cure it, rather to relieve discomfort for the affected person, particularly if the patient is pregnant. While this will require medical intervention, those affected by the virus must take every precaution to stay away from pregnant women. As regards home remedies, the leaves of the margosa tree are beneficial for the body and can be soaked in to a bucket or better still a tub of water for a few hours before using it for your bath. You may also boil the leaves in water and use a towel to dab the water onto the face and other parts of the body. Care must be taken to not scrub the face as it will worsen the lesions. Drink plenty of orange juice and lemon juice throughout the day and mix a little freshly dried and ground turmeric powder with honey and the juice extracted from bitter gourd leaves. Consume the mixture twice a day for best results.