The majority of us spend a large chunk of our day in a seated position. Think about it, you sleep for 7-8 hours and most of that may be in the foetal position, you get up maybe drive to work…in a seated position and then get behind a desk, when you get home you sit in front of the TV to unwind. Added to this if you do take some time out for exercise, can you honestly say that you finish your session with a good stretching routine? Just think of your poor bunched up muscles crying out for a BIG stretch!

I realise that I’ve just made a big generalisation but it hopefully helps you to understand where I’m coming from. There are many forms of stretching and much opinion of when it’s better to stretch, before exercise, during, after or none at all! Some people think that we should stretch whether we exercise or not and others don’t. So it can be confusing.

To keep it simple this advice is aimed at those who want to carry out a static stretching routine on its own and not before or after an exercise session. I don’t intend to add any new theories to this debate but what I do want to do is to keep it clear and and concise, so read on!

Benefits of Stretching:

* Can improve your flexibility.
* Helps you to relax.
* Reduces the risk of joint sprain or muscle strain.
* Can reduce the risk of back problems.
* Can reduce post exercise muscle soreness.
* Can reduce tension in the muscle.

Warming Up. Before starting your stretch routine I would recommend that you ‘warm up’ your muscles prior to doing so. Stretching is often mistakenly thought of as a sufficient way of warming up your muscles but its important realise that a gentle warm up prior to stretching is a safer option as your warm up routine will increase blood flow to your muscles and therefore reduce the chance of injury prior to stretching.

A gentle warm up should consist of light rotation of the joints such as the shoulders, hips, knees and ankles followed by gentle to brisk walking or walking/jogging on the spot. This should last approximately 5 minutes or so until you feel warm and slightly out of breath.

Types of Stretches. Stretches can be split into 5 different techniques: Static, Ballistic, Passive, Ballistic/Dynamic and Proprioceptive. If you are a beginner I would recommend the simplest and easiest technique to ease you gently into it which is the Static stretch where you stretch the muscle to a point where you feel the tension and holding the stretch for approximately 15-20 seconds.

Static stretching can improve your flexibility over time and is one of the safest forms of stretching. Good luck with your journey to improved flexibility!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Stress is very much the disease of the 21st century, affecting well over 100 million people in the US alone. Some people may not even realize that they suffer from stress and they struggle on through their daily lives regardless to the fact they feel below par, that they are under performing, and that they are heading for potentially serious health problems. Managing your stress reduction has never been more crucial, and it is now easier than you may imagine!

The fact of the matter is that the lifestyle that most of us adopt these days are conducive to generating stress. Many of us live life to the maximum, working hard and playing hard. Our lives are organized around credit and the credit squeeze has affected many of us quite badly. The economic downturn, which is in itself a direct result of the credit squeeze, has caused many millions to lose their livelihoods, as many businesses have either been forced into liquidation or forced to cut their staff. This of course generates even more stress as people struggle to pay their mortgages and try to make ends meet. It’s therefore small wonder that so many people lived stressed existences today.

Just take a few minutes out of your no doubt busy schedule to stop and see if you relate to any of these stress symptoms.

>Experiencing problems going to sleep and staying asleep

>Lack of motivation

>Lack of focus and concentration

>Feelings of lethargy

>Feelings of depression

>Short tempered

>Feeling generally unwell

>Being overweight

>High blood pressure

>Panic attacks

>Diabetes

If you can relate to any of the above you need to seriously consider stress reduction in some shape or form. All of these symptoms can be directly related to stress, and some of them, (high blood pressure and diabetes) can even kill you.

Stress is a major medical problem. It is very real, and more and more, doctors are recognizing and diagnosing it as a result. If you can associate with all or any of the above symptoms, it is very likely that they are stress induced, and the best way to deal with them is by joining a stress reduction program.

A good stress reduction program will firstly help you to accept that you are stressed out, and will further help you to identify the root cause of that stress. In some instances, once the causes are recognized, it may be possible to eliminate them altogether. However, in many instances, it is not possible to eliminate them entirely, and this is where managing the resultant stress becomes critical.

Unchecked, stress can, and will make you irritable; make you fat; increase tension in your neck and back; make you depressed, heighten your chances of having a stroke or heart attack, and developing Alzheimer’s and cancer. It is just not worth it. You owe it not only to yourself, but those around to too, (especially your loved ones), to deal with the problem for once and for all. Find a suitable stress reduction program and get on it before the damage becomes irreparable.

There are plenty of programs on the web, but see if you can find one that is written by someone who has personally been through the grinder and has been totally stressed out themselves. It is essential. How else can they understand the seemingly overwhelming problems you face?

The programs are out there, you may have to spend a little time and money which will be well spent and any investment in this most crucial self improvement will start to pay dividends within weeks. Stress reduction and it’s management really is the quickest way for you to discover a healthier and happier life.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Despite that high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, is a common problem, very little is known about its causes. In 95% of the cases, the cause is unknown. But a lot of studies have shown that long term stress can cause or at least contribute to hypertension. Other prime suspects are unhealthy diets and lack of exercise. In many cases, hypertension is probably caused by a combination of factors.
Emotions such as anger and fear trigger the body’s fight or flight response. The adrenal glands flood the body with stress hormones. The brain shunts blood away from the gut and towards the muscles, in preparation for physical exertion. Heart rate, blood pressure and respiration increase. The fight or flight response has been very important for the survival of mankind, a caveman had to quickly make up his mind either to stay and fight or try to escape a threat. Today, very few real life threatening dangers exist but the old fight or flight response still gets triggered in a lot of situations.

The fight or flight response by itself is not a major health concern. The real problem is that today it is much more difficult to release the emotions. You can not hit or run away from a telephone call or traffic jam. You never get the chance to complete the fight or flight cycle. The emotions stay inside you rather than getting released when fighting or escaping. If you do not release these built-up emotions your health will suffer. Hypertension is just one of the health issues caused by this.

By learning how to respond to stressful situations, you can reduce stress and for a lot of people this means lower blood pressure. The best way of dealing with pent-up emotions varies from person to person. But the two extreme solutions, suppressing them completely or letting the emotions control you must be avoided. If you let a powerful emotion like anger out without control, your blood pressure will increase dramatically. And you may do things you will regret later. The other extreme, trying to suppress your emotions is no long term solution and it is most likely one of the main causes of stress. If you never release your pent-up emotions, your blood pressure is likely to keep on increasing.

In most cases, some kind of physical activity is a good way of letting off steam. But it is also important to be able to manage stressful situations, being able to respond rather than reacting is the key. The first step in this process is to understand that life is not easy, bad things happen to everyone. Try to see it as a challenge rather than a threat. Also avoid jumping to conclusions, especially if they are based on anger of fear. Relaxation and stress reducing exercises are important ways of controlling stress. And remember, when you think you are too busy to relax, that’s exactly when you really need to relax.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Stress is part of life; it is almost impossible to avoid stress. In fact, attempting to avoid stress is enough to create stress. Stress is what you experience emotionally and internally in response to a given situation with which you are incapable of coping. However, stress, ironically enough, may also be beneficial in that it teaches you about how to handle difficult situations in life. Learning to deal with demands in life keeps your mentally healthy, just as exercise keeps you physically fit.

Stress is related to your feelings, which signal that “something is not in order.” Stress, therefore, requires expression of these emotions in an appropriate way – in the form of mental relaxation.

Mental relaxation is possible only when you have a plan for a balanced lifestyle, including regular bedtime, even on weekends and holidays. The reason is that your body’s biological clock plays an important role in regulating your sleep patterns, which are critical to your mental well-being. Plan your daily routine and pace your life.

Take full responsibility for you own stress. This is the key to managing stress in your life. Never say, “You give me stress!” Nobody gives you stress but yourself. You are responsible for your own feelings. Otherwise, you would be passing the responsibility to others – that does not work in real life.

Change your attitudes and perceptions of what you experience in your life. Events that happen to you remain the same, but your perceptions may vary. Change your attitudes and perceptions to change the way you think about your experiences. Learn to laugh at others as well as at yourself. According to studies, children laugh 40 to 50 times a day, and that is why they are happy; adults, on the other hand, laugh only 10 to 15 times at the most. Do not take life too seriously, develop and nurture a sense of humor, which is a component of mental relaxation.

Enhance your physical capabilities to cope with difficulties encountered. These capabilities include physical fitness, good nutrition, and deep sleep without sleeping aids.

Change the environment that gives you stress. If your job gives you stress, change the job or take a vacation to de-stress yourself, although this may be a passive way of dealing with your stress.

Life is full of problems. Understanding yourself and the things that trouble you most is an important step in solving your life’s problems, thereby eliminating much of the stress. Your mental health is determined by the way you work with and relate to others. In other words, you may have behavioral problems that create stress for you at work and in relationships. Isolating yourself in order to avoid these behavioral problems only makes you more difficult to enjoy good mental health.

To deal with any behavioral problem, you must learn how to communicate easily and clearly with others. You must be a good listener. You must be assertive without being critical or aggressive. You must learn to trust others, and see the good, instead of the bad, in others.

Eliminating stress is not equivalent to producing mental relaxation. To help your mind relax, you need to give it “a break.” When you are asleep, your mind remains very active and does not “rest.” When you are awake, your mind is preoccupied with mostly past and future thoughts. Nearly all your thoughts, including your desires and fears, are based on either the past or the future. Your desires are no more than recollection of the past pleasure and hope of repeating them in the future. Fears are also memories of past pain, and your desire to avoid them in the future. To give your mind the rest it rightfully deserves, help your mind focus on the present moment. Meditation does just that: it enables your mind to focus only on the present moment to the exclusion of past and future thoughts.

In meditation, you focus on your breathing, noticing your inhalation and exhalation, directing your mind to the present, thereby shutting off wandering thoughts of the past and future. In meditation, you are essentially giving your mind a period of relaxation. There is no other way as effective as meditation in giving your mind total relaxation. Modern medicine is beginning to use meditation to cure mental disorders because it works at your subconscious level. In Buddhist meditation, you experience “nirvana” only through meditation, in which you empty your mind of impure thoughts to arrive at a mental state of enlightenment.

Meditation, in conjunction with self-effort in changing attitudes and lifestyle, provides the best mental relaxation for your mental health.

Related posts:

1. Introduction to Mental Cybernetics The full ebook available exclusively on Ebookling on their launch...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The formula for shyness is “too much focus on the self” plus anxiety. To make it even more unpleasant, sometimes when you are feeling shy you experience physical sensations which ‘hijack’ your calm logical self.

My pulse raced, my mouth dried up and I felt like the village idiot! I couldn’t think what to say so I said nothing apart from making barely audible grunting noises! Cary Grant eat your heart out! When I detected pity in her eyes (or was it contempt, or boredom) I mumbled my excuse and got out of there. I hated being shy and was determined to change it.

How shyness is developed and maintained

Shyness really is a combination of social anxiety and social conditioning. To overcome shyness you need to learn to relax socially. This enables you to direct your attention away from yourself and gives you the space to practice certain conversational skills. In most cases, the heightened emotions of socializing when young simply condition the sufferer to respond to social events with fear, instead of excitement and pleasure.

Relaxed socializing is so pleasurable, not to say productive, but it is an advantage denied to many until they learn to relax. To start reducing your own shyness, I want you to absorb the following tips and ideas and start to put them into practice:

1) Think about the way you feel and behave around familiar people you are comfortable and spontaneous around. It’s that feeling transferred to new people and situations that equates to your emerging social confidence.

2) Focus your attention away from yourself. Sure, you can think a little bit about how you are coming across, but if all your focus is on your own words and feelings then you might as well be by yourself. Notice what other people are wearing and make a mental note, listen to their conversation, imagine where they might live, make a point of remembering names. Not only does this give you more to talk about, it also ‘dilutes’ social anxiety leaving you feeling calmer.

3) Ask people open questions. Many people like to talk about themselves and will find you interesting if you find them interesting. Ask questions that require more than a ‘yes’/’no’ response such as ‘What do you like about this place?’ rather than: ‘Do you like this place?’ Once they’ve answered use ‘add-on’ questions connected to the first such as: ‘What other places do you like in this city…?’ Next you can express your views. This is a great way to get the conversation going. If the conversation doesn’t ‘take’ then no matter, you’ve done your bit.

4) Stop trusting your imagination so much! Have you ever had an imaginary picture in your mind of a holiday destination only to arrive and find the reality is different from the way you had imagined? That’s how reliable imagination is. Stop imagining what others think. I do lots of public speaking and I’ve long since stopped trying to second guess what others think of me – it’s just too painful. Besides, what a person thinks about you has a lot more to do with who they are than who you are.

5) Stop using ‘all or nothing’ thinking. The ‘completely this/completely that’ style of thought occurs when you are emotional. People who are depressed, angry or anxious see reality in terms of differing extremes, simplistic all or nothing terms. An angry person is ‘right’ and you are ‘wrong’; the depressed person feels like a ‘failure’ while others are a ‘success’. In reality, life is composed of infinite gray areas. So stop fearing that you might say the ‘wrong’ thing! Or that people will ‘hate’ you. Once you start to relax more socially you’ll notice much less black or white thinking because anxiety actually causes you to think in all or nothing terms.

6) Take your time. You don’t have to blurt things out. Ask questions and if questions are asked of you can take time to consider your response (within reason). Don’t just blurt out what you think might be the ‘right’ answer. A slow answer is a relaxed answer.

7) Finally, use hypnotic rehearsal. Hypnosis is the quickest way to change your instinctive/emotional response to any situation. Only think about meeting others when your mind and body is relaxed. This conditions you to associate relaxation with being around new people. In fact you’ll find that when you relax deeply enough often enough whilst hypnotically rehearsing being comfortable around others you’ll reach the point where you just can’t be shy any more! This is what I call a ‘happy inability!’

I now love meeting new people and suspect that my current social confidence would be unrecognizable to my fifteen year old self.

Copyright © 2009 Uncommon Knowledge Ltd

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

When we are stressed our bodies go on alert and hold on to tension and fatigue. I have researched many ways to help me to relax and de-stress and I found three simple techniques that really helped me, and I hope they help you too.

De-stressor No 1 – Body Attention

Martial arts and yoga practitioners know that where you focus your attention in the body has a big effect on how you feel. It is known as centering and this is how you do it:

• start by standing up in a relaxed fashion, with your feet parallel and about shoulder width apart
• place one of your hands over your stomach so that the index finger is directly over your navel, now look down to where your ring finger is resting and imagine a point at that level right in the middle of your body. In the martial arts traditions this is the centre of power in your body and is known as the tan-tien in the Chinese tradition.
• relax your eyes and let your eyes soften and go into peripheral vision
• allow your body to relax, and make sure your knees aren’t locked
• keep your attention focused on that central point inside your body and continue to breathe easily and naturally – don’t force it
• notice where you are holding tension in your body and just calmly direct your attention to that point and keep breathing.

This level of focus on your body will help you to block out worry, panic and fear. It is also very useful to practice if you suffer from anxiety or panic attacks. You can use it anywhere because the point is in the focus inside the body, you don’t have to be standing still or sitting, Just allow your attention to go 100% to that spot and breathe naturally and easily to help you relax.

De-stressor No 2 – Forming a protective shield

If things seem to be just too much for you to cope with and the thought of coping with just one more thing is unbearable, then this technique can be helpful to distance you from the confusion and chaos that goes on in the outside world. It might seem a little strange, but it does work, so try this:

• imagine that you are sitting in the centre of a clear bubble which is acting as a protective shield between you and the outside world.
• the bubble is transparent so you can see what is going on, but it is also very, very strong so that everything stressful that happens outside just bounces off and away from you.
• as you are safe inside this bubble you are able to stay calm, and relaxed. In fact, the more stressful it is outside, the calmer you are inside.

This exercise works because your unconscious mind doesn’t distinguish between imagination and ‘reality’. This means that if you imagine you are shielded from stress, you will feel exactly as if you are being shielded and protected from it.

If you have to do any public speaking and are feeling nervous, this is also a great technique to heop with that. Just extend the bubble to cover the whole room and let yourself know that nothing outside can get in to disturb your concentration or upset your presentation.

De-stressor No 3 – Become detached

Sometimes in emotionally fraught situations, or if there is an argument or disagreement that is upsetting you, it can be helpful to use this very simple technique to detach or distance yourself from what is going on.

It helps you get a clearer perspective and stay calm by literally allowing yourself to detach and float above the situation. Here’s how it works:

• imagine that you are floating up and out of your body, higher and higher, as far up as you feel comfortable and where you are able to look down on yourself.
• what you will notice is that the higher up you float, the more detached and calm you will feel.
• stay ‘above’ the situation until you feel comfortable enough to gently come back down to earth and releasde yourself fully into the moment.

These are three simple techniques that you can try anytime. I hope they are as effective for you as they have been for me in dealing with stress.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Strategies to increase brain power are the strategies that make it possible for the brain to do more of what it already does.

Whether we want a higher IQ, some kind of acclaim in our career, fame and fortune, better investment insights, we need to make it possible for the neurons in our brain to connect more frequently and effectively with neighboring neurons, and for signals or communications between neurons to be passed and read clearly.

That is all neurons do folks, is connect and communicate.

Everything that happens in our lives, each thought, movement, emotion is the result of neurons connecting and talking.

So strategies to increase brain power are going to be the same strategies I use to take care of my brain’s fitness, that connecting and communicating power.

If you look around you these days, there is a great deal of information being tossed around about two capacities of the human brain which were unknown not too many years ago, neurogenesis, or your brains ability to generate new neurons daily, and neuroplasticity, your brains ability to rewire itself based on what you are paying attention to. Neuroplasticity can happen in moments, as the brain is incredibly adaptable.

Most of what I can do to increase brain power involves life style choices in several areas, physical exercise, nutrition, sleep, stress management, and novel learning experiences, including using computerized brain fitness programs.

As I maximize my efforts in these areas, my brain then responds quicker with greater clarity of thought and insight.

Not omniscience or omnipotence though.

Physical Exercise to Increase Brain Power

All the research that I read says the most important strategy to increase brain power is physical exercise, which might bring to mind having to hoist heavy barbells off the ground, at the local gym, in the company of muscular men and women who will look askance at my puny efforts.

Please get rid of that image. The physical exercise that is required by the brain can be simply an increase in physical activity, or doing more of what your are already doing, according to Simon Evans,Ph.D. and Paul Burghardt,Ph.D., co-authors of Brainfit for Life, which is a very interesting compilation of current research brain fitness tips.

Evans and Burghardt say do more of what you already do to begin, walk a bit more, for example, and work up to an exercise regime if you want to.

Increased blood flow appears to be what your brain requires to increase neurogenesis and neuroplasticity.

In fact, you can engage in exercise at home, in your basement, which can be just excellent for your brains fitness.

One model that I use involves HIIT or high intensity interval training, which I hope doesn’t scare you, because it is very adoptable to your level of fitness and the level of intensity that you want to use, or can use, and you can build intensity at your rate, all the while increasing your brain power.

Nutrition to Increase Brain Power

Your brain weighs in a 2% of your body weight but uses 20% of your bodies fuel, and it requires a flow of high octane fuel, as it cannot store its own.

That fuel requirement must be filled with what your brain needs, and you will not find that in processed foods. To increase brain power through nutrition means to increase antioxidants, minerals, vitamins, phytochemicals, glyconutrients, fiber, ect. by eating fruits and vegetables that are vine ripened and locally grown, each and every day.

That may be a shock to your system at first, because it may want to continue its ingestion of high fructose corn syrup and msg which are in so many processed foods, but if you want to increase your brain power, you will give those up.

One of the key ingredients for increased brain power is omega 3 fatty acid, because neurons are composed mostly of omega 3 fatty acid. Without replacement omega 3, neurons get brittle, and do not receive or pass communications as effectively, which garbles communication and brain power.

Omega 3 fatty acids are essential which means our body must get them from your diet, as it cannot manufacture them.

The best source is fish, but the risk with fish is mercury poisoning. You may consider a supplement for your omega 3, and make sure that the supplement is processed to remove mercury.

Novel Learning Experiences to Increase Brain Power

Another pillar of brain power is novel learning experiences. My brain is actually seeking now learning. Most of the experts in this field report that the learning which best challenges the brain is learning a new language, a new musical instrument, or starting a new career.

And there is some very interesting brain power developments resulting from the use of computerized brain fitness programs, like the Posit Science Brain Fitness Program, the Mind Sparke Brain Fitness Pro, the Lumosity Program, and the folks who created Happy Neurons. Love that name.

The Posit Science program has just been evaluated in a research project called the IMPACT study, published in April of 2009.

I first came across the Posit Science company and mention of Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. in a book called The Brain That Changes Itself, by Norman Doidge,MD, and was instantly intrigued by Professor Merzenich’s ideas.

So I bought the Posit Science Brain Fitness Program and I am very satisfied with its ability to help my 61 year old brain recall words, and I think it is part of what I will continue to do for my brain as I age, along with the workouts, proper nutrition, good sleep, stress management, and computerized brain fitness.

I am not going to learn a new language, or an instrument. I may recareer, but for my time, computerized brain fitness programs will be the way to keeping neuroplasticity and neurogenesis going.

The programs I have listed here offer increasing levels of challenge which is a vital part of the feedback our brains need.

The Mind Sparke program is an excellent tool for increased IQ. It has been measured in research published a really long time ago, in 2008.

And the Lumosity program is very easy to use, available on demand, right at your computer, to use when you need a brain brightening break.

I use it between clients and phone calls as a way to refresh the acetylcholine levels in my brain, like a nap helps me consolidate memories.

Sleeping to Increase Brain Power

According to Evans and Burghardt the events that happen to us during our sleep are vitally important to brain power.

If we cut short our sleep time, which is unique to each person, we limit our brains ability to cycle through certain hormonal events and memory consolidation efforts.

Making a habit of not allowing the brain to complete those tasks means diminished rather than increased brain power.

I know quick naps during the day are very refreshing for me also.

Stress Management to Increase Brain Power

So another of the keys to increased brain power is relaxation? Sounds counter intuitive doesn’t it, when all around us we are seeing people create and sustain stress chemistry in their body to increase income and production.

However, stress hormones actually stop neurogenesis just as effectively as ethyl alcohol does, so it is very important that we manage the stress chemistry we have and only use it when we are actually under attack, when we need to move effectively in order to save our lives.

If I am surprised by a gas bill that is higher than expected, then I need to begin to relax as quickly as I can, and for guys, it can take 20 minutes to actually clear the stress hormones from my brain and the rest of my body.

Deep breathing is a very effective tool, belly breathing like a baby does before we train them out of it, is a cheap and powerful antidote.

In fact, regular deep breathing and focus on relaxation helps me keep my body filled up the DHEA, the antiaging hormone, which is a good thing for a 61 year old late life parent.

I remember reading about research done with the Navy’s Top Gun pilots that indicated the most effective pilots going through that training were the pilots who were able to change their brain waves from beta brain waves, or focused external awareness to alpha waves, or relaxed external awareness and back again frequently. In other words they did brief periods of brain work and then relaxed briefly also. HearthMath is a wonderful tool to facilitate that kind of brain activity.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

You’re probably well aware that golf has as much to do with mindset as it does with technique. You need a mindset of success in order to succeed at many things including golf! If you’ve been having trouble with your game, you probably find yourself replaying those unfortunate scenes in your mind. This will of course only sabotage your game even more. And, if you’ve had a stressful week at the office, you are likely to bring that to your game – causing your week-end to be less enjoyable than it could be.

There are many techniques for getting in the zone but they often require you to battle with your mind in order to reach that “zen” state. What if there was a way to end the mind battle and just be “in the zone” more often and with less effort. Not only will you feel more relaxed, you will feel more confident and truly enjoy the game of golf.

Over the last couple of decades a new psychology has been emerging called energy psychology. You’ve probably heard of Tony Robbins before or seen him on television. He brought neuro linguistic programming or NLP to the mainstream. You may have even heard that NLP has helped people improve their sales results, their sports performance and even their relationships. You may not be aware however that a number of other very effective methods of working with the subconscious mind have been proven just as effective and life changing as NLP. One of those cutting edge techniques is known as Meridian Tapping or Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT). When you tap on these energy points on your face and body with your fingertips, it helps to induce a state of relaxation while releasing any negative emotions or attitudes you may have about your skills and abilities as a golfer.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.