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Hug Therapy to Reduce Stress, Fight Cold and Flu, and Avoid Seasonal Depression

Sunday, December 7th, 2008

It is the most stressful time of the year – time of the cold and flu, holiday anxiety and stress, seasonal depression as well as one of the most stressful times ever in our economic history. My suggestion: let us hug! Are you a hugging person? Actually it doesn’t matter, because if hugging is a challenge for you, it might be even better – we all need challenges from time to time, am I right?

It is a Holiday Time, time of giving, so let us give hugs to people we love and people we know, and maybe even to people we don’t know. Let us try this simple stress-relief tool as many times as we can during this month. Deal?

I would like to share with you the article about hugs by Michael Clutton.

“Hugs are very different from handshakes. Hugs are a way of expressing love and healing for the soul. Sometimes, when there are no words that will help a situation, a simple hug will.

Not only are hugs nice, they are much needed. Hugs can relieve pain and depression. They can make you healthier and happier. Hugging feels good and overcomes fear. Hugs are a crucial part of human communications. Hugs are a healthy, genuine way to express affection, friendship and love. It is never be wrong to hug a friend (of either gender) or your child, sibling or parent.

Hugs are also proven to be medically beneficial. First used with autistic, withdrawn children, “hug therapy” is used to teach basic trust.

Hugs are good for any occasion: birthdays, holidays, greetings, good byes or sometimes just because you want to. When you get a hug, you feel warm, fuzzy and complete. The hug of another person expresses a certain feeling of union and caring. They’re a friendly way to express appreciation of another person.

There are group hugs, tender lover hugs, around the waist hugs, kissing hugs, sweet and tender hugs and yes, even the grab-ass hug. There is the awkward “lean in” for the timid and the breathtaking squeeze-you-till-your-eyes-pop hug.

Not to be overlooked, there’s also the lingering, head on shoulder version often used during joyful reunions, such as a soldier returning from long duty. Mutual rocking or a gentle swaying motion often accompanies this incredible hug.

Hugs show love with speed. It helps the body’s immune system, keeps you healthier, cures depression, reduces stress, induces sleep, is invigorating, has no unpleasant side affects, is all natural and is 100% wholesome.”

As a stress relief tool, hugging will help us boost our immune system, fight cold and flu, increase our energy level and avoid seasonal depression.

Let us hug, breathe, smile and be happy.

Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Health and Relationship Expert

NaturalCounselor.com

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Posted in Dating and Relationships, Nutrition and Recipes, Stress Relief Help | 2 Responses »
Tags: Anxiety, appreciation, children, Cold and Flu, Dating and Relationships, family, Friendship, health, Immune System, love, Seasonal Depression, Sleep, stress, stress relief technique, wellness

The Healing Power of Imagination — Open the Gateway to the Fulfillment of Dreams

Thursday, November 6th, 2008

My friend and colleague Melissa Zollo is my guest blogger today. Here is her article for you to enjoy.

Can you claim with complete certainty that within you is a powerful healing presence? Do you speak the words “I am healed in every way” every morning with inner conviction, remaining calm in the face of appearances and adversity, expecting new and wondrous results? Or do you mutter affirmations and then proceed to neutralize every positive idea you spoke once you read the morning paper, listen to the TV or have coffee with a friend trapped by gossip or greed?

Tortured by Content

One of the things that tortures most people, (no matter what they possess or how important they think they are), is the contents of their own mind. Torturous memories, images and feelings invade their mind from the time they start their day until they take a pill to fall asleep at night. A steady stream of endless fears and doubts dominates their focus, conversations and actions. They do their best to avoid their fears but avoida

nce will not neutralize an error pattern or habit.

All Causation is Imaginal (mental)

TheImaginal Dynamic explains how we can rise in consciousness into the ethericworld, create a mental blueprint, step into the world of thought and rebuild our beliefs and emotionalize ideas until we create a force field of energy around us that radiates out from us and attracts back to us people, things, and situations in harmony in the physical world.
The Imaginal Dynamic, Power of Imagination and the creative/imaging process is very misunderstood by most people. I feel once understood it addresses the underlying problem behind manifestation and points out the truth of life that can help us solve our problems, overcome challenges, and fulfill our dreams.
The Imaginal Dynamic helps us realize that there is only One Power, One Life-Principle, One Imagination and we are that Oneness. Call it the Living Spirit, God, Divine Imagination, or Consciousness, we could not change, move, shift or realign ourselves without the Consciousness of Infinite Intelligence within us.

Spirit Is indicates that the Master Architect, Originator and Source of the Universe is ultimate, infinite, imaginative, ever-present and complete, but the image, blueprint or plan of this Living Infinite Spirit is always unfolding in the workshop of imagination.

Harness the Power of Imagination

“The secret of imagining is the greatest of all problems to the solution of which the mystic aspires. Supreme power, supreme wisdom, supreme delight lie in the far-off solution of this mystery”, so writes Edward D. Faucett.

It is impossible for the sick person to find health, or a poor person to attract wealth, or the miserable person to find happiness, or a failure to become successful in the physical world no matter who he knows or what he does until he first images himself to be healthy, wealthy, happy, and successful. Results follow our mental impressions, they do not precede them. To constantly complain and focus on lack, unhappiness and limitation while remaining sick, poor and miserable in consciousness is to play the fool’s game. Changes will never take place from the level of consciousness of the problem and self-condemnation.

Nothing in life is condemned.

Everything is constantly being expressed and out-pictured by the creative use, misuse or abuse of imagination. It is important to realize that you unconsciously or unknowingly bring about the condition of limitation and lack. It is up to you to rise up to a higher level of awareness. Is it always an easy and comfortable process? I’d be lying to you if I said it is easy, but I will say it is the way to throw off the chains of wrong thinking. Doubts are stubborn. There are times when the habit of upheaval seems so powerful one feels shipwrecked on the shores of lack and limitation.

Questions to ask are: read the whole article

Bio. Melissa Zollo, law of attraction and self motivation specialist, is the author of “Discover the Power of Imagination” and “How to Unleash the Power With and Attract Money” CD audio programs. FREE daily tips and newsletter available at www.presentmemory.com .

Breathe, smile and be happy.

Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Health, Nutrition and Relationship Expert

NaturalCounselor.com

Posted in Self Motivation | No Responses »
Tags: Affirmations, Awareness, Consciousness, Conversations, Dreams, Feelings, Fulfillment, happiness, Harmony, Healing, Idea, Imagination, Integral psychology, Intelligence, Law of Attraction, mind, Philosophy, Power, Spirit, success, Thinking, Thought, wellness

Get Healthier with Fall Detox and Exercise Shortcuts

Monday, October 27th, 2008

A beautiful Fall season is the right time not only to detox our mind to make it happier, but also to balance our body with detox and exercise shortcuts to make it healthier.

Fall Detox

To reach our body balance, and we call it a metabolic balance, we have to change our food and nutrition preferences, experimenting and making choices based on our bio-individuality.

As we know, processed foods contain chemically derived ingredients our bodies don’t know how to read. It creates metabolic disaster-imbalance.

Coupled with chronic stress and low level of exercises this blank (no nutrients) food contributes to chronic inflammation which in other words it leads to imbalance in our body.

Toxic chemicals in the water we drink and the air we breathe also affect our metabolic imbalance and contribute to inflammation in our body which leads to illnesses.

Fall is the right time for an easy fall detox/cleanse with seasonal whole foods. We have to incorporate in our diet as many as possible seasonal, local and freshly harvested:greens (kale, dandelion, beet greens, etc.), vegetables (fall squashes, beets, carrots, cauliflower, onions, garlic, zucchini, pumpkin, etc) fruits (avocado, apples, pears, kiwi, watermelon, etc.) beans (mung beans, lentils, etc.) nuts (walnuts, pistachios, pumpkin seeds).

They all are full of fiber and help elimination which is the most important part for any gentle detox/cleanse you can do yourself.

Don’t forget to enjoy local harvest in juices and smooths to drink in the morning and as a snack.

You can always use some fruits and vegetables for homemade cleansing or rejuvenating facials (tomatoes, avocado, grapes, watermelon, apples, pears, etc.).

Exercise Shortcuts

We are moving towards Winter, and it means that the days are getting shorter and shorter following naturally after the many long days of light. But there is no excuse for us to exercise less because we don’t have time. Why? Well, we always can find exercise shortcuts:

* park your car as far as possible;

* take stairs whenever you can;

(this is a picture of famous Potemkin’s Stairs from my native city Odessa, Ukraine. I used to walk up

all 192 steps).

* get up every fifteen minutes to stretch and deep breathe which helps reduce stress and detox;

* dance / move / jump / stretch in the kitchen while you preparing a meal;

* use more bending and stretching any time you clean the house, do gardening or talk on the phone (you can do the whole working out routine while text massaging).

We have to learn how to prioritize our health, our relationships, our jobs, etc., to sort them out and start a wonderful journey to wellness – journey that will help us to get back our happy mind and healthy body.

Let us be smart, patient and full of a sense of humor if we want to feel and look fabulous this fall.

Breathe,smile and be happy.

Women’s Holistic Health, Nutrition and Relationship Expert

NaturalCounselor.com

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Posted in Detox Weight Loss | 1 Response »
Tags: Alternative Medicine, Chronic stress, happiness, health tips, home-made facial, Inflammation, nutrition, Processed Foods, relationship, stress relief technique, Weight, wellness, Whole Foods, Whole Foods, women's health

Do it yourself Massage Tips

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

More than 75% of health problems can be related to stress. We know that one of the best tress-relief tools and techniques is a body massage. I would like to share with you the article “Massage-You can Do It Yourself” by Michael Tasker where he explains how easily you can self-massage your body. These are very helpful tips for us to use, especially nowadays, with our economy situation:

“Qi Gong Tapping is a form of self-massage is commonly used by many Qi Gong and Tai Chi practitioners while warming up before their meditative practices. This can be adopted as a method to energize yourself first thing in the morning or perhaps before a physical workout. Start by forming your hands into a loose fist so that you can firmly tap your body from head to toe along the meridian pathways. The first step is to tap along your arms both inside and outside. Then tap your torso down the front of your chest, continuing down to the front of your thighs. Repeat the tapping on the inside, outside, and back of your legs to cover the entire lower body. Finally, tap along your neck and behind your back to cover the remaining areas. This practice can be repeated several times, until your feel your body warm up from the increased blood flow. Remember, one of the benefits of massage is to facilitate the increase in blood flow.

Abdominal self-massage is best used after meals to improve digestion or by women during their menstrual cycle. To perform abdominal massage, place one hand over the other as they lay above your naval. Breathe deeply as your move your hands together in a circular-motion around your belly in a clock-wise direction. The clock-wise direction is synchronous with the digestive pathway of your colon. Repeat this motion for several minutes focusing your mind on your hands and breathe to warm your abdomen and improve circulation.

Reflexology is a system of treatment where specific points on the hands and feet are used to improve the health and functioning of the entire body. You can benefit from this practice even without a through understanding of reflexology charts. Use some basic massage oil or hand lotion to gently rub all of your fingers and toes. Continue to rub your palms and the soles of your feet, including the back of your hand and tops of your feet. Pay attention to any tender spots you find so that you can focus more on these areas. You will soon discover which places feel the best and which ones need more attention. By adopting a massage session each day, the tension that is accumulated in these areas through the day can be relieved.

An overall ear massage can greatly benefit our health. With the use of your thumb and index finger you need to rub the outer edge of the ear, which is also called the helix. Follow the helix down the ear until you reach your earlobe. Pull gently on your earlobe several times. Move above your ear lobe and begin to massage each of the remaining areas of your ear. The tragus, which is located just above your earlobe, is very helpful to activate the mind and relieve headaches.”

What about you? Have you ever tried reflexology or ear massage yourself?

What about doing it with your partner?

By the way, kids love reflexology massage at any age (my husband has been addicted to it for decades).

Breathe, smile and be happy.

Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Health, Nutrition and Relationship Expert

NaturalCounselor.com

Secret to endometriosis unlocked by scientists

Posted in Stress Relief Help | No Responses »
Tags: Alternative Medicine, Digestion, Hand lotion, health, Holistic Health, Hormones, Martial arts, Massage, Oil lotions, Qigong, Reflexology, relationship, Self-massage, stress relief technique, Tai chi, wellness, women's health

Do We Always Take Everything for Granted?

Monday, October 20th, 2008

Image via Wikipedia

Yesterday I was talking to my former client and now dear friend, let’s say, her name is Kathy. A couple of days ago she came back from Europe, where she was visiting her mother while introducing her new husband. Yes, Kathy is a newlywed (thanks to my successful coaching), and deeply in love with her husband. So she told me that her mother was surprised and even annoyed with her daughter kissing her husband from time to time in public. She even asked her once or twice, why she was paying so much attention to him, he has been already her husband anyway, so why bother kissing him. My friend didn’t get into argument, trying to explain that a happy and healthy relationship takes a lot of work. She knew already that it was wasting of time to argue with her mother or discuss something she knew nothing about.

Well, Kathy was smart enough to let it go until … she came back and called me. She cannot understand why her mother has everything taken for granted, why she doesn’t realize that a good relationship is a hard work (well, we know that it takes two to be happy, and in this case they both do their best).

I am also wondering why is that? Why we don’t appreciate what we have until a wake-up call, until something changes, disappear or lost for good? I mean not only our relationship or marriage but also children and parents, our health, our career, our friends…Does it have anything to do with our ancestors, culture, environment? Or is it a human nature? Maybe if we appreciate a little bit more what we already have, we would be happier, less depressed, stressed out or angry?

Does it sound familiar? What do you think?

Image by Muonzoo via Flickr

Breathe, smile and be happy,

Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Health, Nutrition and Relationship Expert

NaturalCounselor.com

P.S. Kiwi and papaya are my favorite fruits.

Kiwi has more vitamin C than orange.

Papaya is rich in beta-carotene and fiber.

The most important is that they can make great homemade facials: use mashed kiwi with honey when you need a quick face lift; use mashed papaya to exfoliate.

more home-made facials

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