STRESS: is it killing you too?

Every time the stock market wavers, do you feel your heart beat going through the roof? While sitting alone and thinking about your child’s masters degree program, do you shake your foot wildly? Well if the answer is yes, then this article is for you because it will help you avert many impending health disasters.

In terms of science, stress is the measure of the amount of internal forces acting within a body. it was only in 1930’s that is term started being used for biological purposes and today it is one of the most widely used and known terms in mechanics and biology as well. In its true application the mechanical term isn’t very different from its biological counterpart. Stress actually is a term used to account for the forces that operate in the mind and wreak havoc in other parts and systems of the body. Now we all know what stress is, it is very important to understand the dynamics of stress and its effects on our minds so as to debunk the weakest links of our most common adversary. Stress is nothing but a condition where we overwork our brains to an extent where our body stops responding to the quick fire messages being sent by the brain therefore making the nervous system go berserk. For every person the causes and reasons for stress can be different depending on his or her concerns and problems. While for somebody a hamburger without a cheese slice can be a cause of stress and for someone the cause of stress can be the deteriorating health condition of his friend. But if one can incorporate certain lifestyle changes and follow some of our tips and tricks as we like to call them, stress will be no more than an obsolete definition that will we resent to the abyss of mechanics.

Lifestyle Changes:

1. Simplify life: we humans sometimes make excessive use of our ability to understand future and remember the past. It is a direct consequence of this exercise that we live life with stress while thinking about the future and railing about the past.

Tip number one,

Don’t think about the future or the past,

Live life in the present and have some fun!

1. Make mistakes: well if you analyze, the question to every impulse of stress going through your body is: “have I made a mistake” from career choices to investment plans, everything comes with its probability of backfiring, but if we become negative and take stress, it surely will backfire. So do not think about going wrong, and even if you do , have faith in yourself.

Do your best,

Leave the rest.

1. Yoga to help you: it is well known that yoga is the best treatment for stress. With so many forms of yoga being developed you can combine your unrequited passion for dance and can go Hip-hop yoga (please read our article on the same) or plain simple yoga to bust the stress.
2. Therapy: you can also give many adjunct therapies a shot like aromatherapy that will help to relax your mental muscles thus helping you get rid of your stress. Acupuncture can also help your spine get rid of unnecessary stress that bows you down. Our articles on aromatherapy and acupuncture can help!
3. Stress busting foods: well this is our trump card! If you like many of us do not have the time to follow any of the abovementioned tips; it is important to accommodate these foods in your daily diet to help you kick the stress out of your life.

• Asparagus: with its high folic acid content, asparagus will help you balance your mood and relieve you of unnecessary stress.
• · Guava: as a fruit it has the highest antioxidant count will bust stress for you with a punch of flavor too.
• · Banana: it helps fight depression as is helps secrete serotonin, which is happy hormone.
• · Blueberries: packed with fiber and stress fighting vitamin C blueberries help you get rid of the Stress Blues!

 

COLOURTHERAPY FOR OUR COLOR CODED LIVES

Our eyes see red and our feet hit the brakes; our eyes see green we say “oh! This is vegetarian, good to eat”. Everything around us color coded. Colors have become so important that they are important symbols of cultural and social machinery. For every person each color has its own significance; for an American child sitting in his bedroom red may be the color of his favorite toy but for an African kid caught raging civil storms red may be the color of blood. It is thus very important to understand the significance of colors and their effect on us.

The history of colors, as funny as it sounds, predates human history. Plants around us were always green, branches were brown; nature unlike our recent visual inventions like the colored TV, has always been colorful. Despite trying to break the mysterious color codes we are unable to replicate the color schemes of nature. The beautiful hint of green on a pigeon’s neck is befitting example of what a great artist nature is and always will be. But with our insatiable thirst for newer and better discoveries, we have been able to harvest the true potential of colors by developing something called COLOURTHERAPY. For those who are unaware of this interesting sounding therapy, Colourtherapy is an adjunct therapy that has today, become an industry in itself. It involves the process of exposing the body to light rays of different colors to help address various physical, mental and spiritual problems. But before going into the details it is imperative to enumerate certain key facts about colors and light.

1. THE SPECTRUM: The white light as we see it is composed of 7 colors which together constitute the spectrum.
2. VIBGYOR: violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red; do not need to say more.
3. REFLECTION AND ABSORPTION: the objects that we see around ourselves are so colored because they reflect that particular color from the spectrum and the rest are absorbed by it.
4. VIBRATION: every color has a wavelength in the spectrum at which it vibrates, thus participating with different functions of the body and mind.

Well now that we know the rudimentary laws of composition and dynamics of colors, it will become very easy to understand Colortherapy. When the body is exposed to a beam of light, every color vibrating at different rates called wavelengths is absorbed physically by different parts of the body. The effect of those colors is discernable. While blue and pink calm us and sooth us, sometimes bright and loud colors irritate us. Thus colors have a strong influence on our nervous system. They also help us attain a natural balance by balancing our inner energies. Colortherapy is present in various other adjunct therapies like aromatherapy and gemstone therapy. Every color affects a specific chakra of the body and helps it attain balance which in turn helps us gain mental calmness.

(Read our articles on chakras for more information)

 

Unlike many other therapies for which one has to go to specialized centers to practice or follow them, colortherapy is something which can change your life while you work at office or eat at home. By paying just one visit to a certified colortherapy practitioner who can advise you to incorporate and omit certain colors from your life, you can  transform yourself and become a more well balanced individual and never be “green” with envy or “red” with anger!!

 

This article is brought to you by YogacaraShop.com – your source for special Yoga Apparel, yoga inspired clothing, comfort clothing clothing designed according to the Colors of the Chakras and the best trendy, high quality and comfortable  Fitness Apparel do visit YogacaraShop.com

Credits to Ozyman (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ozyman/168266287/)

Back Pain Blues: Get Rid of It

Everything in life today seems so unchanging. The same sandwiches in the morning, the same cereal bowl, the same coffee and even the same radio jockeys on the stations while on your way to the office. Isn’t this monotony making our lives dull and boring? Well we are not asking you to leave your bread churning ways to become a wild spirit and go to sky diving or bungee jumping; but try and search for one important element in your life.

When we find our toasts a little chewy in the morning or the coffee at the work place rather insipid it is not the flavor that we crave for but a much more complex thing. BALANCE is what we are looking for. One of the most prominent places of our bodies today which lack that balance is our backs!! How many of you sleep with the final turning on the pillow accompanied with a painful “aah” or “ouch”? How many of you get up in the morning and bend to wash your face in the basin only to get back up with a crooked contortion of your lovely face? Today millions of people suffer from back pain. Unlike the yester years where back problems were generically associated to old age, today these issues are being seen in people as young as in their early twenties and even late teens!! So the bane of back pain does not knock at the doors of the old anymore.  The reasons for the same can be attributed to mainly two reasons namely the changes in lifestyle and increasing stress levels. The introduction of heavy weights in the life of the youngsters of today and the craze to have a ripped body is driving them insane. Lifting heavy weights without proper supervision, taking supplements to get quicker results is making them seem beautiful on the outside but very hollow from the inside. Also with so much pressure about getting into the right job to achieve goals which have been dumped onto them by their parents or peers students do not have the time to think about how to sit while studying or what to eat when. For middle aged people it is the same, unchanging routines and pressures about increasing fuel prices or the crashing stock markets which is affecting their backs. Well here are a few tips on how to keep your back healthy and strong.

TIME: there is nothing that is quick and instant. So the following routine will need 15 minutes from your daily schedule. Ok remember it like this

15 minutes a day,

Keeps the Back pain away!

1. Lie down flat facing downwards and keep your hands flat next to your rib cage. On the count of three inhale slowly and raise your chest and upper body. Hold this raised position for a few second and exhale and come down. Repeat in sets of 3 with 10-12 repetitions in every set.
2. You can also try and life your chest and legs slightly at the same time. Stop when your back muscles send a shiver up your spine. Repeat in sets of 3 with 6-8 reps in each set.
3. You can also lie down flat on the ground with your back and bum touching the ground. Raise your legs from your knees with your feet touching the ground. Twist this pyramid to one side of the body while trying to face the other side. This helps greatly to align the spins and avoid unnatural twisting.
4. The same exercise can be repeated with one leg straightened out and the other led going over it.
5. Avoid lifting heavy weights if absolutely unavoidable. Also whenever bending to do so, bend your knees to avoid any strain getting to your back.
6. Take constant breaks while sitting in office or any other high stress environment.
7. Go for regular checkups and other treatments like Chakra healing, acupuncture and yoga sessions for long lasting relief.
8. In extreme cases homeopathy can also be a boon.

 

Nothing is more important than your back because it serves as the link between your upper body and lower body. So do not neglect your back, for it is very important to keep your backbone happy and stress free!!

This article is brought to you by YogacaraShop.com – your source for special Yoga Apparel, yoga inspired clothing, comfort clothing clothing designed according to the Colors of the Chakras and the best trendy, high quality and comfortable  Fitness Apparel do visit YogacaraShop.com

Credits to Jez Page  (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jezpage/4441180935/sizes/l/in/photostream/ )

 

Which Animal are You

When Charles Darwin compiled the first draft of his most famous work “on the origin of species” in which he shattered the long standing notion of considering humans as the ultimate species with a divine power looking after them by considering all animals as progenies of the same antecedents he did not know what storms it would stir up in the political, social and literary spheres all across the globe. By bringing humans down from the top of the hierarchy of creation to the center, with all other animal species he garnered a lot of caustic criticism.

But the association of humans and animals is not a modern or post modern concept. Rather, the edifice of this relationship is an antiquarian concept. The Chinese followed and still continue to do so, a lunar calendar which is believed to have first surfaced in 2600. Just like the western calendar this lunar calendar too was a yearly one. Since it was based on the cycles of the moon, the date of the New Year shifted between January and mid February. This calendar consisting of a complete cycle of 60 years, divided into 5 cycles of 12 years each, consigns a particular animal to every year. According to this calendar an animal dominates the people born in its year. The people born in that year carry certain attributes physically, mentally and socially that are instilled in the ruling animal. To find out which animal rules you, read on the following list:

Having figured out the animal year, it is time for you to understand your dominant animal characteristics.

 

RAT:  People born in the year of the rat, possess excellent adaptability and just like the Rat they can live in the toughest conditions and face adverse conditions with great flexibility. These people are adept at handling sticky situations very diplomatically.

OX:  Ox represents a very important part of the Chinese culture; the most important animal for a country with a long standing history of farming. So, the people born in the year of the ox are patient and loyal just like the Ox to the farm worker. Most importantly these people are patient and steady, and cannot be fooled into things but impulsiveness.

TIGER: Solitary like the Tiger, these people are very progressive and outgoing in their own way. These people are centers of positive energy. They are individuals who possess the right balance between Grace and Fury.

RABBIT: Just like the animal itself, the people dominated by the rabbit are progressive and guided my speed. They are impulsive but not in the wrong sense. These people are decisive and possess good motor skills.

DRAGON: people born in the year of the dragon are strong headed individuals who can sometimes turn towards arrogance. They are dependable, strong and motivated my aspiration.

 SNAKE: swift, calculative and logical, people dominated by the snake possess grace and do not like to be controlled. They are very aware of the people around them and cannot be fooled easily as they are very sensitive to changes around them

HORSE: guided by a strong will and untiring spirit the people dominated by the horse are loyal and dependable. But just like the strut of the horse, they can be inconsistent too.

GOAT: Sentimental and bighearted are the people dominated by the goat. The goat which symbolizes domesticity gives the people a very warm and family oriented nature. Such people are motivated by liveliness and loyalty.

 MONKEY: people born in the year of the monkey are lively and quirky. Most importantly they are creative and have the ability to think rationally and sequence things logically without being blinded by raw emotions.

ROOSTER: unpredictable, the people of the rooster year are resolute and sometimes dogmatic. These people are guided by a free spirit that sometimes makes them seem rather inflexible.

DOG: The easiest to explain the dog is a symbol of loyalty, playfulness and dependability. People born in the year of the dog are trustworthy and calm. But they can be overcome by anxiety which can hurt them mentally. These people are great teachers and business people.

 PIG: Last but not the least, people born in the years of the pig, are shy and dedicated. They are the ones who follow their targets with undying persistence. Just like the animal, people dominated by the pig are always hungry for knowledge, success and food of course!!

Well now that our readers know of the animal in them, they would love to discover these traits in them and bring out the best of themselves in their personal and professional lives. So, do not mind somebody calling you a Tiny Rat or a recalcitrant OX. Just be happy to take the goodness of all the animals in the world.

This article is brought to you by YogacaraShop.com – your source for special Yoga Apparel, yoga inspired clothing, comfort clothing clothing designed according to the Colors of the Chakras and the best trendy, high quality and comfortable  Fitness Apparel do visit YogacaraShop.com

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

www.chinatoday.com

Photo credits: St Stev (www. Flickr.com)

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/st-stev/2232097366/)