Lifestyle Choices

1. When you breathe, breathe with your whole chest and abdomen too. Most of us breathe only with the top part of our body, which means we are not fully lowering the diaphragm and expanding the lungs and so are not making use of their full capacity. This kind of restricted breathing stifles emotional expression and is often linked with anxiety, depression, and worry. To check for abdominal breathing, put your hands on your tummy. Does it swell when you breathe in and sink when you breathe out? It should. Lying flat on a firm surface, practice breathing fully and gently until you get the feel of it.

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EYES

This exercise is excellent for the eye area, which usually goes slack faster than any other part of the face. It is particularly designed to prevent or eliminate crow’s-feet. It is in two parts.

Part one Looking into a mirror, lower your chin to your chest and open your eyes looking straight ahead. Then, slowly and in eight definite steps, close your eyes by bringing the lower lids up to the upper, all the while looking into the mirror until the very last moment. Hold this position with your eyes tightly shut for four counts, then release in the same eight definite steps. Repeat four times. Once you can control these movements in definite steps, you are ready to go on to the toughy that really does the work. (more…)

A living, breathing thing, skin is far more than just a superficial covering for your body. It is your largest organ. It covers a surface area of about 17 square feet and weighs between six and eight pounds. So complex is this stuff called skin that a piece of it with only the surface area of your thumbnail boasts a yard of blood vessels, twenty-five nerve endings, one hundred sweat glands, and over three million cells.

Lasting skin beauty is a question of lasting care, not spending lavishly on fancy creams and treatments. It is the everyday way you treat skin that matters year after year. But to know how to look after your skin you must first know something about it—what it is and isn’t, what it’s meant to do, and the many things that affect it for better or worse. For then you can see that its needs are met from day to day. In return it will give you what you desire: beauty that at the very least is skin deep. (more…)

Any severe illness and some medical measures, such as operations, radiotherapy and the use of some drugs, may deplete energy and therefore mimic depression. At the same time the prospect of long-term illness or of facing life with debility creates all kinds of feelings which may be repressed.

Losing the function of part of your body, being permanently debilitated, losing part of your body through amputation, or knowing you are going to die naturally cause grief. An initial numbness or disbelief about your condition may sometimes amount to a complete denial of the facts. Sometimes people who are told they have cancer manage to block the fact so effectively that they have no memory of knowing or of ever being told. More often the fact is known but there is remarkably little worry, or an unrealistic optimism. Some degree of denial may continue for a long time. (more…)

The Problem With Techniques

The ideas described in the section on Gestalt are not peculiar to it and are found in many of the more modern therapies. Although founded on an attempt to find more vitality, they can be misused, because as soon as any technique becomes inflexible it creates an act rather than a vital expression. Because the techniques are exciting, some people also use them to get a temporary “high” on human experience, rather than to learn to be more themselves. The important point is that any technique is only a tool of the trade, a “gimmick” to get through to the more alive part of a person. Tools can be used in many ways, and some tools work better in some people, and in some eras, than others. What is most important to you as a client is the skill with which the tool is handled and the integrity of the handler. (more…)

Moderation is a good general rule of nutrition.

Too little of important nutrients can lead to health problems. Excluding entire food groups can cause problems and is not advised. People who restrict or eliminate meat from the diet must be sure to carefully select other foods to insure a healthy diet. Just as too little food can cause problems, excessive intake of various nutrients can cause problems. More is not always better. Moderation (neither too much nor too little) in choices of foods is advised.

It is not necessary to permanently eliminate foods that you really enjoy, but some of your favorite food may not be among the best of choices. Enjoying special foods on occasion is part of moderation. (more…)