Archive for health


  • 15 Simple Ways to Overcome Anger

    Posted on 11.25.08 | 114 Comments

    anger.jpg
    Photo: Simón Pais-Thomas

    Can you recall the last time you were really angry at someone? So much so that you were physically shaken just at the thought of them? Rarely does this feeling of anger help us in getting what we want. Often, it will work against us, resulting in more pain, unnecessarily.

    Even the most gentle of personalities can temporarily turn into a vindictive rascal, if pushed far enough.

    A friend of mine is going through a divorce with a spouse who is unreasonably prolonging the process. He’s sad, hurt, upset, frustrated and very, very angry. Words of anger and hatred spout out of his – otherwise polite and thoughtful – mouth. He was no longer his authentic and peaceful self. And he didn’t like who he was becoming.

    Through helping him come to a place of understanding and forgiveness of his ex-spouse with love, compassion and humility (we had to dig deep), I realized that the same tools can be used in dealing with other negative emotions.

    For sake of simplicity, we will use anger as the target emotion to overcome. Keep in mind that it can be applied to overcome other non-conducive and intense emotions such as jealousy, guilt, hatred, regret and fear.

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  • The 9 Step Television Diet

    Posted on 01.07.08 | 85 Comments

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    Photo: Confused Vision

    Over the holiday break, I traveled back to Canada to visit my parents. Since I don’t watch TV at home, I decided I would indulge my senses and watch a little. “Hey, it’s the break. Relax, let it loose and watch all those shows I miss out on.” At the end of two weeks, I was an addict. I sat and watched so many random shows that I’m embarrassed just thinking about it.

    Coming from a life where the TV never gets used, I found that the change in me was swift and noticeable. My holiday daily routine went something like this: sleep in, lazily walk into the kitchen looking for food, turn on the TV to see what’s on while I eat, watch TV for several hours, spend some time with my family, eventually return to the TV and watch for several more hours.

    At the end, I felt so drained and tired. Even with knowing how it made me feel, I continued to repeat this each day until the day I left. Like I was under a magical spell. What’s worst, after coming home, I downloaded all the missed episodes of Tila Tequila’s ‘Shot at Love’ and watched them. Even knowing that it was trash for my mind, I did it anyway.

    Yikes! Now, I needed to do something about it.

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  • Don’t Break Your Back! Tips to Healthy Posture

    Posted on 12.17.07 | 68 Comments

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    When you were a child, you may have been told to “Stand up straight!” or “Don’t slouch!” from your parents and teachers. I remember when I was younger, my mother would poke my back out of nowhere to remind me to stand up straight. I hated this as a teen and was determined to rebel for no reason other than to be stubborn and go against what I was told. My purposeful slouching eventually turned into a habit and carried with me into adulthood.

    Now that I’m older, I understand why my mother was so insistent. My poor posture now makes me feel:

    • Pain in my back and shoulders.
    • I am breathing shallowly.
    • I appeared to lack self confidence.
    • Energy was not flowing efficiently throughout my body. I was often tired.
    • It made me look and feel weak.

    I have spent much time correcting the damage, and undeveloped muscles, from my rebellious teen years. Like any habit, breaking bad posture can be a challenge, but definitely doable with some attention and practice.

    Many of us may like to improve our posture, but we often don’t know how, or where to start.

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  • How I Ended My Relationship with Coffee

    Posted on 11.02.07 | 63 Comments


    Photo by jacob chen

    Let me just start by saying that I loved my cup of ‘Grande Soy Latte’. But, I didn’t like how it made me feel after the ‘kick’ worn off. I live in Seattle, the home of Starbucks, where coffee culture is BIG, and coffee shops are sprinkled on every street corner. Every day, I walk past seven coffee shops on my short eight-minute walk to the office. Deciding to quit was a personally challenging one, and I am very proud to announce that I’ve been ‘clean’ for 8 months.

    Caffeine can be a sneaky little pick-me-up. I hated how it made me feel afterwards and how much I was dependent on it. Here are other reasons why I decided to quit:

    • I was sweating more.
    • I would get nervous for no reason.
    • I would feel dehydrated
    • I felt mentally “numb,” less sensitive to my surroundings, less intuitive and less creative
    • It was hard to truly relax and be calm.
    • Headaches from lack of caffeine.
    • I saw my friend hospitalized from too much coffee on a regular basis.
    • I learned that coffee is highly acidic (I’ll cover acidity and alkalinity in food in another post)
    • Caffeine masks both our true physical and emotional states. Giving my body a false boost of energy made it harder for me to tell what I really needed: more food, more sleep, more calmness?

    So, I decided to end my eight year ‘love affair’ with coffee (who I ‘saw’ at least twice daily). How did I do it? The answer lay in restructuring my habits. I started with staying off coffee for two weeks, and then another two weeks, which eventually turned into eight months.

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