Think Simple Now » health

15 Simple Ways to Overcome Anger

Tina Su — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 01:50:48 +0000

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.

Why Do We Feel Like Crap?

“It’s amazing how much emotion
a little mental concept like ‘my’ can generate.“
- Eckhart Tolle

Anger doesn’t feel very good. It’s pretty gross, actually. Our stomach tightens-up, we become sweaty, we react – instead of act – in survival mode. And anger clouds our judgment causing us to respond wildly out of emotion. We’ve all been there. Sometimes, it can get so intense that we tremble passionately while feeling strong hate towards other people. And when we cool down, we would wonder how we allowed ourselves to get in such a messed up state in the first place.

The answer is: Very easily. Allow me to explain.

Emotion is our body’s response to a thought, which could be triggered by an external situation. But this situation is seen through the lens of our own interpretation. Our lens is colored by the mental concepts unique to each of us; concepts like good and bad, mine and yours, like and dislike, right and wrong. Keep in mind we all have different lenses, thus interpretation conflicts are inevitable.

For example, we feel very little emotion when someone else loses their wallet. But when it is our own money, we suddenly feel pain and the desire to hoard it back to us.

The moment we’ve labeled something as “mine”, we will experience mental distress when we’ve interpreted that we have ‘lost’ it or are at the risk of losing it. Whether it is my wallet, my pride, my money, my house, my car, my job, my child, my stocks, my feelings or my dog, as long as we feel that it is lost or threatened, we will experience pain in the form of anger or other strong negative emotions.

We experience pain, because we have been trained since children to believe that the things which we have labeled as ‘mine’, are something that define who we are. We’ve identified with it and falsely believed that if we lost it, or face losing it, we lose ourselves. Suddenly, our ego has nothing to identify itself by. Who are we? This hurts our ego tremendously.

In our minds, we feel entitled to more, whether it is more money, or more respect, or a better job, or a larger house. Amongst it all, we fail to see that our mind will always want more. Greed is a highly addictive state of mind, always growing, blinding us of reality, while convincing us that we’re doing a reasonable thing.

Common Ingredients of Anger:

Unfairness – We believe that we have been treated unfairly. We tell ourselves that we deserve more, and we buy into this story that someone has wronged us.
Lost - We feel that we have lost something that we have identified ourselves with. Feelings, pride, money, car, job.
Blame – We blame other people or external situations for having caused our loss, for taking advantage of us unfairly. The blame often only resides in our heads and is a product of our imagination. We fail to see things from other people’s perspectives. We become deeply selfish.
Pain - We experience pain, mental distress, and anxiety. The pain causes physical responses in our body, which disturbs our natural energy flow and state of wellbeing.
Focus - We focus on the thing we don’t want, and energize it by complaining about it passionately, and repeating it to as many people who will listen. This creates a downward spiral of anger. “What we focus on expands”, this is true regardless of the emotion.

The interesting thing is that if there are two angry people unhappy with each other, both people feel a sense of loss, unfairness, pain and the need to blame the other person. Who is right? The answer is: both are right and both are wrong.

Why Should We Bother with Overcoming Anger?

Negative emotions like anger kick us into survival mode, as if saying to our body, “we are in danger”. There is a physiological change that takes place in our body to prepare us for fight or flight. These physical responses disrupt the natural flow of energy in our body – affecting our heart, immune system, digestion and hormone production. A negative emotion is therefore toxic to the body and interferes with its harmonious functioning and balance.

Photo: Gabrielle Hennessey

Prolonged anger, stress and holding grudges will hurt our adrenal gland and immune system. For women, stress on the adrenal gland can affect the reproductive organs (uterus, ovaries) causing them to exhibit abnormal behaviors, potentially resulting in sterility.

Aren’t your physical and mental health worth more than the mental pressure you are voluntarily piling onto yourself? Is it worth it to react out of spiteful emotions and hurt feelings, so that we might temporarily satisfy our pride?

Anger also clouds our judgment and we become consumed with problems and pain. Instead of cutting ourselves loose, free from the self-inflicted pain; we make irrational, unreasonable, regretful and hurtful decisions. In the case of divorces, the legal fees alone can drain one’s savings, unnecessarily leaving both parties unhappy and poor. Nobody wins!

The Fundamentals of Change

Notice how quickly we can fall into a negative state of being? A split second, maybe. By the same reasoning it should take us the same amount of time to shift into a resourceful state of being. The challenge here is that we have been conditioned from a very young age to remain in an un-resourceful state. Nobody gave us the tools to shift our state into a positive one. Often, our parents didn’t know how, and still do not know how.

When negative feelings arise, we have two choices,

To follow the habitual pattern we’ve learned since we were young, to react and allow the negativity to consume us.
Or, to interrupt the pattern we have been conditioned to follow, and in doing so build new neural pathways that allows for alternative possibilities.

There are essentially three ways to interrupt a behavioral pattern:

Visual - Change your thoughts.
Verbal – Change your language.
Kinesthetic – Change your physical position.

Okay, let’s dive into the practical stuff…

15 Ways to Overcome Anger

Some of these tools might be more effective for some of us than others. For me, “Look Up!!” has been the most effective (thus, I’m listing it first). I’ve also seen good results where several of these are used in combination.

Photo: Simón Pais-Thomas

1. Look Up!!!

The fastest way to change negative feelings is by changing our physical position right away. The easiest way to physically change is by moving our eye position. When we are in a negative state, we are likely looking down. Suddenly looking up (into our visual plane) will interrupt the negative patterns of sinking into the quick sand of bad feelings.

Any sudden physical change will do the trick:

Stand up and stretch while letting out an audible sigh.
Exaggerate and change your facial expressions.
Walk over to a window where there is sunlight.
Do 10 jumping jacks.
Do a ridiculous dance that pokes fun at you.
Massage the back of your neck with one hand while singing happy birthday.

Try this next time you feel a negative or unpleasant thought come up.

2. “What Do You Want?”

Sit down and write down exactly what it is that you want out of the current situation. Your job is to describe the end result you would like to see. Be clear, realistic and fair. Be specific with your description. Including dates of when you would like to see the results.

Once you have this clearly mapped out, and when you find yourself drifting into negative thoughts of what you don’t want, you can shift your focus on this list instead.

Also, when we do this exercise consciously, we’ll come to find that the arbitrary and materialistic things that we thought we wanted, aren’t want we want, after all. Clarity is a beautiful thing.

3. Eliminate: Don’t, Not, No

Words such as Don’t, Not, No, Can’t gets us focused on the things that we don’t want. Language is a powerful thing and can influence our subconscious mind, and ultimately our feelings. When you catch yourself using a negated word, see if you can replace it with another word of opposing meaning. Example: instead of saying “I don’t want war”, say “I want peace”.

4. Finding the Light

Darkness can only be eliminated when there is light (like a lamp, or sunlight). In the same way, negative things can only be replaced by positive things. Remember that regardless of what is happening to us externally, or how bad things appear in our mind, we always have the choice to speak and see things positively.

I know this is harder to do when you’re in midst of heated emotions, but I’m a big believer that there is something to be learned from every situation we encounter. Look for the lesson. Find something about the situation that you’ve gained, whether it’s a material possession or an understanding or a personal growth. Find the light so you can uncover the darkness of your mind.

5. Surrender

Surrender to our ego’s need to be right, to blame, to be spiteful, and to be revengeful. Surrender to the moment. Surrender to the pull to become worked-up by the situation.

Become mindful. Watch your thoughts and learn to separate your thoughts from your own identity. Your thoughts are not you.

Things will play out regardless of whether we become emotional or not. Trust that the universe will work its course and do its job. By not surrendering, we get worked up for nothing, and our body will suffer as a result of it.

6. Circle of Influence

When we are feeling down, it’s easy to be sucked into the downward spiral of bad feelings. It really doesn’t help to be around others complaining about the same issues. It’s counter-productive to getting well.

Instead, find a group of people with a positive outlook. When we are around such a group of people, they will remind us of things we already know deep within us, we can start to recognize the good, and the positives. When we are down, we can draw energy from them in order to rise above the problem and negative state.

In the same way that being around negative people can affect you in a negative way, being around happy and optimistic people can raise our awareness, and help us move out of the un-resourceful state.

7. Gratitude Exercise

Find an uninterrupted space, and bring a notepad and pen with you. List out (in as much detail) everything you are grateful for in your life, either in the past, or present; either experiences, relationships, friendships, opportunities or material possessions. Fill up the page, and use as many pages as you have things to be thankful for. Be sure to thank your heart and your body.

This is a simple, yet underestimated tool to help us focus our attention on what matters. This exercise can also shift our state of mind from one of a lower frequency to that of a higher frequency. It also helps us to gain clarity and to remind ourselves that we have much to be thankful for.

No matter how bad things get, we always, always have things to be grateful for. If anything, we have the opportunity of life, in which we have the freedom to grow, to learn, to help others, to create, to experience, to love.

I’ve also found it particularly effective to add silent meditation for 5-10 minutes prior, and visualizing everything on your gratitude list after the gratitude exercise. Try it for yourself!

8. Meditation

Meditation is training for the mind; to calm the noise in our mental space, to lower our thought count, to draw out inner wisdom, and mostly it helps us to recognize and remain anchored in our divine state.

Regardless of what is happening external to us, we have the capacity to remain centered, in a state of acceptance, of flow, of peace, and of love. When we are in this state, we are rational and have the clarity we need to handle any situation with grace, and with minimal stress on our body.

9. Breathing Relaxation Techniques

Most of us are shallow breathers, and air only stays in the top of our lungs. Deep breathing exercises will get more oxygen into our brains, and into the rest of our body. Try this:

Sit up straight in your chair, or stand up.
Loosen up clothing, especially if your stomach feels tight.
Inhale through your nose. Exhale through your mouth.
Put one hand on your abdominal area (over your belly).
When you inhale, feel your hand expanding as air is filled up in your diaphragm.
When you exhale, feel your hand retracting to the initial placement.
Count in your mind the number of inhales and exhales, and gradually level them off such that both take equal counts.
Slowly, add a count to your exhale.
Keep adding a count to your exhale until the count for exhales doubles that of the count for inhales.
Repeat this breathing rhythm for 5 to 10 times.
Keep your eyes closed in silence for a few minutes afterwards.

10. Laughter!

We cannot laugh and be upset at the same time. When we make the physical movement required to laugh or smile, we instantly feel light-hearted and joyful.

Try it now: give me that beautiful smile of yours. I want a genuine and large smile now! J How do you feel? Do you feel an instant jolt of joy? Did you temporarily forget about your problems?

List out a series of movies that make you laugh and stock them up at home. Or meet up with a humorous friend who can really get you laughing. For my friend going through the divorce, I prescribed Episode 10 of “Survivor Gabon”, he laughed until his stomach hurt and told me the next day that he slept very well, without once thinking about the negativity that would otherwise trigger anger.

11. Forgiveness

Photo: Cindy Loughridge

For my little vindictive rascals out there, I know the idea to forgive your ‘enemy’ sounds counter-intuitive. The longer you hold on to the grudge, the more painful emotions you will experience, the more turbulence you are putting on your body, the more damage you are inflicting on your long-term health and wellness.

Unable to forgive someone is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. And there’s no way around it.

12. Snap a Rubber Band

Wear an elastic/rubber band around your wrist, at all times. Every time you find yourself having a thought that would lead to a downward negative cycle, snap the rubber band. It might sting a little. But this actually trains our mind to avoid triggering those thoughts. Pain is an amazing motivator.

13. Identify and Eliminate Your Triggers

Sit down and brainstorm a list of reminders and activities that will trigger this negative emotion in us. It might be hearing the word ‘divorce’, or someone’s name, or going to a particular restaurant.

Commit to yourself to eliminate the mentioning of these triggers from your life. If we know something will upset us, why would we bother triggering it?

14. Identify What Anger Brings

List all the things that you’ve gained as a result of being angry. When you’re done, go down this list and count the number of positive things that are actually conducive to your wellbeing. By the way, “making the other person suffer and feel pain” does not count as “conducive to your wellbeing”.

This exercise helps us bring more awareness, rationality and clarity into the situation.

15. Seek Closure. Solve the Problem

To the best of your ability, do not drag anything on for the sake of “winning” or “being right”; it’s not healthy for anyone involved.

Just because we surrender to the external events and choose not to give them any more attention, does not mean that we sit back passively to let others step all over us.

Take action that will help you move onto the next step, and closer to resolution. Be proactive and thoughtful. The faster you can get the problem resolved, the quicker you can set yourself free, mentally.

* Got tips for dealing with anger? Share your thoughts and stories in the comment section. See you there!

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(Book) A New Earth – Chapter 5 on Pain Body
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Eating Our Way to Death, Literally

Tina Su — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 01:03:00 +0000

Photo by Jordan Fraker. See more of his work here.

What would you say if I told you that meat and dairy consumption are associated with heart disease, cancer and diabetes? Or if I told you that the meat industry kills more than 10 billion animals a year, in the US alone, and contributes more toward pollution than the exhaust from all the cars in the world?

For the past few weeks, I’ve been researching the health benefits of vegetarian diets, to gain more clarity on the topic. Due to its controversial nature, this has been a topic which I’ve avoided, until now. What I learned shook me both emotionally and intellectually.

I am not here to cast judgment on what you eat or how you live your life, but rather to present you with the information that I’ve discovered and find valuable. Knowledge is a powerful energy which gives us the gift of understanding, through which, we are empowered to make more informed decisions that benefit our wellbeing and benefit the world we live in.

I predict that some of you may be feeling an urge to be defensive, and that’s okay. I totally understand. When that happens, take a deep breath and remember that I am just a messenger. Hear me out.

Health Implications

Note: For the sake of discussion, Americans are used in research findings for this section. Similar numbers can be found for regions with similar “western” diets and lifestyles. Example, Canada.

One in three Americans will die of heart disease. One in five will die of cancer. Two in three are overweight. Over 8 million people have an autoimmune disease. Over 15 million have diabetes. Over 60 million have some form of cardiovascular disease. Over 100 million have high cholesterol.

Imagine, as you read this, for every minute that passes, 2 Americans will have had a heart attack, and another 2 will have had a stroke or heart failure. That’s 3000 heart attacks in the next 24 hours, roughly the number of people who died in the 9/11 attacks. These are not sexy numbers. They are very real.

Dr. T. Colin Campbell, the country’s top nutritional researcher, presents overwhelming evidence that “the data from the China Study suggest that what we have come to consider as ‘normal’ illnesses of aging are really not normal. In fact, these findings indicate that the vast majority, perhaps 80-90 percent of all cancers, cardiovascular diseases, and other forms of degenerative illness can be prevented, at least until very old age, simply by adopting a plant-based diet.” I highly, highly recommend his book. It’s very eye-opening, educational, simple to understand, and covers all the evidences to date on the effect of animal protein on our health.

Did I mention that Dr. Campbell grew up on a dairy farm and got his Ph.D. in animal nutrition? Here are some highlights from the book worth mentioning:

Casein, which makes up 87% of cow’s milk protein, promoted all stages of the cancer process.
Proteins from plants (including wheat and soy), did not promote cancer, even at high levels of intake.
Cancer growth can be turned on and off by changing the level of animal proteins consumed.
Heart disease, diabetes and obesity can be reversed by a whole food, plant-based diet.
Various cancers, autoimmune diseases, vision and brain disorders (Alzheimer’s) are influenced by diet, and it has been shown that we can reverse and/or prevent these diseases on a whole food, plant-based diet.
We are being exposed to small amounts of cancer causing chemicals on a daily basis, but cancer does not occur unless we consume foods that promote and nurture tumor development.
High animal protein intake, in excess of the amount needed for growth, promotes cancer after initiation. The average American consumes 15-16% of their diet in protein (70-100 grams) every day, while the recommended daily protein consumption is 10% (50-60 grams).
People who eat the most animal protein have the most heart disease, cancer and diabetes.
Consumption of animal-based foods, especially cow’s milk, is associated with greater risk of autoimmune diseases.
Dietary changes can enable diabetic patients to go off their medication.

Meat and eggs also contain Arachidonic Acid (AA), which is a pro-inflammatory fatty acid found only in animal products. According to Dr. Andrew Weil, “Heart disease and Alzheimer’s – among many other diseases – begin as inflammatory processes. Even chicken is full of arachidonic acid. You are stoking the fires of the disease process. It doesn’t matter if the chicken is free-range or the beef is grass-fed. The offending fatty acid is natural and inherent in the meat.”

Turns out, “The human body can derive all the essential amino acids it needs from the natural variety of plant proteins that we encounter every day. It doesn’t require eating higher quantities of plant protein or meticulously planning every meal.” says Dr. Campbell.

If we can get all the proteins, minerals and calcium we need from plant food, it seems risky to subject ourselves to the side effects of animal proteins: saturated fat, archidonic acid, cancer-promoting proteins, heart diseases and increased blood cholesterol levels. Additionally, whole, plant-based foods contain the antioxidants, fiber and complex carbohydrates, missing in animal-based foods.

Ethical Implications

“Our task must be to free ourselves…
by widening our circle of compassion to
embrace all living creatures and
the whole of nature and its beauty.”
~ Albert Einstein

When I became a vegetarian, my main motive was for health, but as I dug deeper into what was happening in animal agriculture, the truth was heart breaking. I was in distress after learning about it, and thinking about it still makes me sad.

About 10 billion land animals are killed each year for food in the US, according to the USDA; this includes 35 million cattle, 100 million pigs, 300 million turkeys, and 9.5 billion chickens. That is more than 1 million animals killed every hour. Animal agriculture is a $100 billion a year industry, with even more powerful lobbying interest than the oil and pharmaceutical lobbies (exposed by Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation).

At such a scale and with efforts to drive down cost, how do you think animals are treated? The answer: the most time efficient way possible to minimize cost. With that in mind, animals are skinned alive, limps ripped out of them, beaks or testicles chopped off without pain relief.

Photo by © Marithé and François Girbaud

Here are some highlights from Kathy Freston’s research on the topic:

“Crammed into cages and lying in their own filth, mother pigs and almost all egg-laying hens cannot turn around or lie down comfortably.”
“Dairy cows are lactating females who give birth to one baby per year to keep their milk flowing. When male calves are born (a million each year), they are shipped to veal farms, the moment they are born. The baby cows are yanked away from their mothers, all the while mooing furiously for her as she tries to follow. For the four months of their lives until slaughter, they live in the dark without ever getting to suckle, play in the field, or learn to walk on their wobbly legs. They are denied solid food to chew on and made anemic so that their flesh stays a pale white. When sold at auction, before shipped to slaughter, they sometimes cannot walk and are therefore dragged.” — This is the suffering of an innocent, gentle and affectionate creature that allows us to have veal, tender veal.
Chickens have natural pecking instincts, and because egg-laying hens are confined in a tight space, they end up pecking each other. To prevent this and to protect the company’s bottom line, their beaks are cut off. “Beak trimming causes severe pain that lasts for more than a month.”
“The baby male chicks who serve no purpose (they can’t lay eggs and are of a different strain from meat chickens) are ground up alive and disposed of.” – Apparently, it’s the most efficient way to fix this problem of surplus useless chicks.
More detailed quotes can be found on page 107 of Kathy’s book, extracted from Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, and Inhumane Treatment Inside the US Meat Industry. I will spare you the disturbing details. They brought me to tears.

I want to know, what makes a dog or cat different from cattle? Just that we’ve given them the label “domesticated pets” and decided to love them? Can you imagine eating a dog? Having its legs torn off, ribs ripped out, its breast sliced so that we can have it for dinner? One might say, “No, that dog is cute.” But what about this calf, Isn’t it cute?

Aren’t we humans biologically similar to these animals? They have a central nervous system, pain receptors, a heart and a brain. They can see, smell, hear and sense touch. When we poke them, they flinch. When we prick then, they bleed. When they are surprised or sense danger, their hearts race. Try looking into the eyes of a cow, a dog, a rabbit or a horse and see if you don’t sense peace, love and life within their being.

I know it’s much easier to not think about animal cruelty, out of convenience. Besides, we are so far removed from it that why should we care? Well, because once we know the truth, we cannot deny them, and we can’t help but to feel, within our hearts, that it is wrong. We may even be afraid of the truth (I certainly was) and avoided hearing details, because knowing the truth may challenge our comforts and change the way we live. For your courage and openness for reading this far, I applaud you.

Environment Implications

I was shocked to learn that the United Nations published a 2006 report concluding that “The livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global.”

Here are some highlights with regards to animal agriculture and its effect on the environment:

Animal agriculture uses 70% of agricultural land worldwide.
83% of US agricultural land is used for pasture or to grow crops to feed animals for human consumption.
Raising animals for food is a primary cause of land degradation, air pollution, water shortage, water pollution and global warming.
Nearly 20% of the emissions that contribute to global warming come from livestock. That is more emissions of greenhouse gases than from all of the world’s cars, trucks, ships and planes! This does not even include emissions from the plants processing the animal products.
70% of the original Amazon rainforest is used for pasture and to grow feed crops. Remember that the trees work to absorb carbon dioxide. When trees are burned, the carbon gets released back in the air.
Additional harmful greenhouse gases are released from farm animals’ digestive processes and manure. Particularly, the following gases:
- Methane – 23 times the warming power of carbon dioxide.
- Nitrous Oxide – 296 times the warming power of carbon dioxide.
Accounts for 9% of all carbon dioxide emissions, 37% of all methane and 65% of all nitrous oxide.
Accounts for most of the water consumed in this country, generating 75% of the world’s ammonia caused by acid-rain.
World’s largest source of water pollution.

Currently, 5 million tons of animal manure is generated daily on US farms. Let me repeat, 5 million tons – 10 billion pounds – of poop is generated every day, 100 times more than that generated by all humans in the world. This amount is more than what our land can absorb, meanwhile polluting our air and our water.

What’s worst, meat consumption is expected to double in the next fifty years. It’s disturbing to consider what the future will hold. Imagine what that will do to our planet.

Vegetarian Myths & Facts

Kathy’s book has an outstanding Q&A section in chapter 8 that covers more questions and in greater detail. Here are some common ones that I frequently hear.

Photo by Sarah Kidmose Hansen

Q: How do you get proteins?

Believe it or not, there are proteins in plant food. Nearly all vegetables contribute to our daily protein needs. Plant-based foods with high protein content are: almonds, avocados, soy and grains. Whole, plant-based foods are also high in fiber, rich in antioxidants, low in saturated fat and cholesterol.

Q: I have a fear of going hungry. Can you get full without meat?

Vegetables are high in fiber, and since our body doesn’t digest fiber, it actually contributes towards making you feel full. Other food groups like whole grains, nuts and seeds are surprisingly filling. Try eating a stash of raw almonds next time you’re hungry.

Refined carbohydrates like white bread and pasta are also filling, but I would avoid those as they are void of nutritional content and are concentrated in sugar content.

This is the first thing my friends learn when they eat at my house. I’m primarily a raw vegan, so I eat a lot of salads (and yes, avocados). People are always shocked to discover that they can get full, to the point of not finishing everything I give them.

Q: I love the taste of meat so much that I don’t want to give it up.

Have you tried mock meat? When mixed into dishes during cooking, you’d barely notice the difference. I have to note that mock meat can be highly processed and one should not focus their diet around it.

Our taste buds can change, in around 21 days. If you can go off meat for 21 days, you’ll notice that the craving either stops or dramatically reduces.

If you mentally do not want to give it up, ask yourself why. Be clear on why you are attached and what eating meat means to you. Write these reasons down on paper in the form of statements. Now, see if there’s an alternative solution to address each statement.

Q: Isn’t meat part of the essential food groups? We’ve always eaten it.

“Although we think we are, and we act as if we are, human beings are not natural carnivores. When we kill animals to eat them, they end up killing us, because their flesh, which contains cholesterol and saturated fat, was never intended for human beings, who are natural herbivores.“, William C. Roberts, M.D., editor of the American Journal of Cardiology.

As with most herbivores, almost all our teeth are flat and blunt, and we have long intestines. Carnivores have large canines usee for tearing flesh, and they have short intestines, so flesh can be flushed out quicker.

Tips for Transition

Photo by Thomas Hawk

1. Meatless Mondays – If making a switch is too difficult for you, start by dedicating one day a week towards eating only plant-based foods. You can even tell people, “Today is my vegetarian day.”

2. Try Alternatives – Keep an eye out in restaurants for meat alternatives. Occasionally order them and experiment. You may discover new dishes that you really like had you not tried them. This also helps us to see that there are plenty of options for vegetarians.

3. Find Recipes – Check out new vegetarian recipes from friends, family, books and websites. It’ll be fun to try something new that’s a healthier alternative. Who knows, you might end up really liking them. I tried making this scrambled tofu the other day, and it was fantastic!! You have to try it.

4. Don’t Fuss Over Details – One of the things I had a hard time with during my transition from vegetarian to vegan, was noticing how many things contained eggs. I was so anal over fitting in all the “rules” that I wasn’t enjoying it anymore, especially since I couldn’t have my favorite ice-cream. I felt deprived and cranky. So if your whole grain bread or hand-made pasta contains a little bit of eggs, don’t fuss over it. The whole point is about being conscious with what you eat, and not about feeling deprived. Use your best judgment and relax!

5. Never Go Hungry – It might take some time to get comfortable with portions during your transition into a vegetarian diet. If you feel hunger, eat more and/or snack often. I used to carry baby carrots, almonds, sun flower seeds, or apples with me to snack on. I now eat a regular three meals a day without needing to snack in between.

6. Give Up Everything But … – If there’s one dish you feel that you can’t give up or don’t want to give up, consider giving up everything else except the one thing. Example, you really enjoy sushi, so give up all other meats like chicken of beef, except raw fish at restaurants.

7. Gradual Transition – Going cold turkey works for some people, but not for me. Cold turkey may make you feel deprived, thus, making it harder to stick with it long term. Like a pendulum, if you swing too far to one side, you’ll swing back almost equally far on the opposite side. I tried doing the extreme dietary change initially, but lasted only 2 weeks, before I went on a binge meat eating session. You can try this for yourself and if cold turkey doesn’t work for you, I recommend to transition gradually. Create a plan, start by reducing certain items from your meals. Example, you might reduce chicken for the first 3 weeks, after which beef is also reduced. For any dietary changes, aim to maintain the change for at least 21 days.

Parting Words

We live in a time where we are so separate from where our foods are produced that it is natural and easy to ignore the facts and continue doing what has been convenient for us. But what is easy and convenient is killing our planet and us.

If you were not a vegetarian prior to reading this, I know that the information here can be challenging to habituate. It took me several tries and many months to transition. My goal here isn’t to convert you on a ‘religious’ path to vegetables, but rather to bring some of the facts to your awareness and allow you to decide for yourself, when the time is right for you.

Living consciously is a choice. Through knowledge and understanding, we can gain clarity to our body’s needs; thus empowering ourselves to make better, more conscious and responsible lifestyle choices. “By eating a whole food, plant-based diet, we use less water, less land, fewer resources and produce less pollution and less suffering for our farm animals.” Sounds like a win-win situation.

Within each of us, there is a light, like a single candle lit on a dark night. Our choices may seem insignificant on their own, but the effects of our choices give us hope for a brighter future. As more candles are lit, the night drifts away from darkness and the night’s details slowly uncover. Before we know it, the night has changed and is now warm and bright, lit by millions of luminous candles.

What are your thoughts? Is there a related issue or point that you like to add? Talk to us in the comments. See you there!

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If you are interested in learning more about our body works, follow me on Simply Tina, where I will be covering the basic workings of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease using extremely simple to understand terms and examples. Check out my first post on autoimmune diseases.
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External Resources:

Book: The Food Revolution
Book: The China Study
Book: Quantum Wellness (Chapter 7,8)
Book: Diet for a Small Planet
Book: The pH Miracle
Book: Diet for a New America
Report: The Comparative Anatomy of Eating
Book: Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet
Info: Humane Society of US Farm Animal Advocacy

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The 9 Step Television Diet

Tina Su — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 13:02:35 +0000

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.

Perhaps you can relate. I don’t mean with trashy reality shows, but how TV has the ability to grab a hold of us.

I wanted to understand: why do we keep turning the TV on?

Before we’re about to turn on the TV, it feels as if it is the best thing to do at this moment. It’s easy; just one flick of a button. When we’re watching it, we don’t have to think, we just sit back passively while absorbing the bright lights and sounds, characters and plot lines. We seemingly forget everything else while we are entirely focussed. Television becomes a nice excuse to delay our responsibilities.

We watch TV, even if there isn’t anything good on. We find ourselves surfing through all the channels, hoping to find anything to keep us there. I feels so much easier than any alternate, which would mean leaving our comfortable position. Before we know it, we’ve been staring at the TV for longer than we planned and delayed what really needed to get done.

Let me ask you, how do you feel after getting up from watching TV? Do you feel good about yourself? Personally, I feel terrible; guilty of procrastinating and frustrated with my lack of willpower.

Here are some effects of TV watching based on my experience:

Mental Clutter – Most things on TV are useless and uninspiring. We are drawn to them to satisfy our curiosity and fear of being alone without things to do. It almost gives us a sense of temporary purpose and a great way to kill time. Most simply becomes unnecessary noise that clutters my mind and inner space.
Mentally Draining – I feel tired and drained. Literally, after staring at the screen passively, my head is numb and I feel sleepy. This is because our brains are actively working to process the highly visual and auditory information, even though we are sitting there passively receiving the information.
Highly Addictive – I want to watch more. After watching the show we’ve planned to watch, what do we do afterwards? The natural tendency is to click around and see what else is on. It’s not unusual to set out wanting to watch one show and ending up watching several more hours of unplanned TV ‘action’.
Time Consuming – Due to its addictive qualities, it has the tendency to suck your time. You are not able to do other things more empowering or beneficial.
Feeling Crappy – I never feel good about myself after I finally pry my eyes from the TV set. With the exception of some documentaries and shows, most shows don’t leave you empowered or inspired.
Procrastination – You get drawn in. You get distracted and delay your tasks. You encourage yourself to procrastinate. I noticed this tendency in myself, as I am procrastinating to complete this blog post.
Kills Imagination – I remember reading a study several years ago on child development and imagination. They concluded that reading tends to stimulate imagination, and extensive TV watching suppresses imagination. When we are watching TV, we are passively receiving and processing visual information, and little imagination is required. Whereas when reading, you are actively reading words and then converting them into visual information or meaning.
Bad Posture - It’s easy to slide down into couch when we relax. When we are absorbed by a riveting show, we tend to disregard any physical sensation and rest in the same position. This can’t possibly be conducive for our physical health. On my flight home from my holiday, I could barely sit up because of pain in my lower back.
Guilt – Naturally, we feel guilty when we haven’t accomplished what we’ve set out to do. Once you realize that you are no further ahead than you were when you started, your conscience jumps on you.

Solution? How to Overcome TV Addiction?

Well, pleading with myself to stop watching these silly shows didn’t work. I needed more motivation.

Here are some strategies and tips that helped me in conquering my recent TV addiction.

I hope they can be of help in your life.

1. Focus on Your Food When Eating

It’s so tempting to turn on the TV while we eat. We tell ourselves, “I’m gonna be eating and doing nothing else. Might as well be entertained as I eat.” But before we know it, we’ll end up spending more time than necessary in front of the television, and not really tasting or enjoying our food. Also, I tend to overeat when I’m distracted, which leaves me feeling bloated and lazy.

Next time you eat, try fully focusing on the wonderful aromas and flavors in your food when and on nothing else. Concentrate on the taste and texture of your food. Feel it giving you energy as you eat. This is actually a form of meditation that can center you. Try it!

2. Break Old Routines

If your habit is to turn on the TV immediately after you come home, then try changing your routine to break the habit. What can you do for 10 minutes after coming home instead of flicking on the TV? Connect with a friend? Read an inspirational story? Have a snack? Get exercise? Do some Yoga or Meditation?

3. Plan Your Escape Route

Before turning on the TV for a specific show, know exactly what you’re going to do after the show. It helps to write the task out on paper along with reasons why you should do this task. For example, “After watching the Amazing Race at 9pm, I will go out for a run because it makes me feel healthy and gives me energy.”

4. Get Used To Using the OFF Button

Once you know exactly what you’re going to do immediately following a show, practice turning off the TV once the show is done.

5. Use Television As A Reward

Instead of saying, “I’ll go do my task when I’m done watching my show.” Develop the discipline to reward yourself with the show when you are done with the task.

6. Ask Yourself Why?

Find a quiet place without interruption. Close your eyes for several minutes and focus on your breath. Then ask yourself: Why do I want to watch this TV show? What do I have to gain? We are all intelligent beings and we all know the answers deep within us. When I asked myself this, I realized that it was because these shows provided a convenient excuse for me to avoid my responsibilities. It was easier and more comfortable than ‘work’ that has long term benefits.

7. Simple Reduction

List out all the shows you watch and see which ones you can cut out. Start with eliminating one show and gradually release the unnecessary shows one by one. Remember to ask yourself when evaluating each show, “What am I gaining from watching this? Is it going to bring me lasting happiness and fulfillment?”

8. Television Allowance

Give yourself a self-imposed limit to TV watching in a day or week. This will force you to put your television appetite on a diet. Try starting with half the hours you currently watch. I have reduced myself to watching one hour of TV a week: “The Amazing Race” every Sunday.

9. Visualized Pain

Did you know that we are willing to go to more extremes to avoid pain than we are to gain pleasure? We tend to choose TV over a responsibility because in that moment, we fail to see the pain of not following through on our responsibilities.

Try this: Close your eyes. Visualize the pain you would feel by not doing a task. Make it as real as possible, feel it with all senses. Intensify the feeling. Double the intensity several times if you can. After a few minutes, imagine the pleasure and freedom after you’ve completed the task (and are rewarded with the show). Again visualize and feel it with absolute intensity.

Hypothetical Situation: You have a report to complete before tomorrow morning at 9am. To visualize the pain, you could imagine the stress created from procrastination later on that night and the agitated feeling you’ll experience the next day from lack of sleep. For pleasure, you could imagine the wonderful feelings of self-empowerment and freedom now that you have your report completed. See yourself sleeping at a reasonable hour and feeling refreshed and energetic the next day.

What are your thoughts on TV watching? How does extended TV viewing make you feel? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

If you enjoyed this article, please vote for it on Digg, share it on StumbleUpon or bookmark it on del.icio.us. I appreciate your support. :)

Other Articles You May Like:

External Resources on Reducing TV & Info Consumption:

Steve Pavlina: Giving Up TV
Steve Pavlina: 8 Changes I Experienced After Giving Up TV
Ririan Project: Getting Unplugged: How to Break the TV Habit
Scott H Young: How to Give Up Television

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Don’t Break Your Back! Tips to Healthy Posture

Tina Su — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 13:01:02 +0000

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.

Posture 101

Posture is defined as the carriage of the body. Good posture means carrying your body in a way that puts the least strain on muscles and ligaments. Poor posture can cause pain in the back and neck, and eventually causes injury. Improving your posture is a great way to improve your image while at the same time improving your health.

First, let’s go over some of the things that contribute to poor posture. Most of them are fixable, and others (like pregnancy) eventually go away on their own.

Poor habits – sitting and standing incorrectly (this is me)
Weakened muscles
Obesity – The extra weight strains the muscles
Pregnancy
Improper shoes – high heeled shoes are the worst
Reduced muscle and joint flexibility

Benefits of Good Posture

Good posture is beneficial to your health in several ways. Standing and sitting correctly prevents strain and overuse, and helps prevent back, neck, and muscle pain. Good posture also helps the muscles work more efficiently, which helps prevent fatigue. Most importantly, I have found that I can breathe deeply from my belly (my core). The energy I get from a deep breath is what keeps me going during the day.

The physical benefits are many, but there are other side benefits to good posture. When you stand properly, the body looks aligned, looks slimmer, and generally looks better. Good posture can also help you feel more confident – because you look and feel better, your confidence increases.

Most of us work at a desk or on a computer, and it’s very easy to slip into poor sitting habits. If your body posture is not aligned, eventually you will experience pain. Make sure you follow proper techniques for sitting, standing, and lifting. These seem obvious, but let’s list them to reflect.

Sitting – Sit with your shoulders back and back straight. Your legs should be at a 90 degree angle to your body. Keep your neck, back, and heels in alignment. Avoid the urge to slouch at your desk!
Standing – When standing, hold your head up straight and chin slightly tucked in. Keep your shoulder blades back, chest forward, and stomach tucked in. Keep most of your weight on the balls of the feet and not the heels or toes. Your arms should hang down naturally.
Lifting – Lifting something off the ground by bending over forces your back to do most of the lifting and puts a strain on the lower back. The proper way to lift is to bend at the knees and not the waist. This forces your leg muscles to do most of the work.
Keep Your Spine Straight: In general, try to keep your spine as straight as possible at all times. No matter what you’re doing, if you’re conscious of the alignment of your back and neck, you will notice that your posture will improve.

Simple Stretches to Loosen Your Back Muscles

Lower back cat stretch: This stretch is done on all fours, fingers facing forward. Start by dropping your head and raising your back as you push the shoulder blades upward. Repeat in the opposite direction by pushing your chest downward, arching your lower back.
Knees to chest: While lying on your back, pull both knees to the chest with your hands behind your knees. Keep your tailbone on the floor and hold this stretch for at least 15 seconds.
Shoulder blade squeeze: Have arms straight out in front of you at shoulder height. Now swing both arms horizontally towards your back, like you are trying to reconnect your fingers behind your back. Swing your arms back to the front. Do this motion slowly several times.
Shoulder blade lift: Have arms straight out in front of you at shoulder height. Now swing both arms vertically in opposite directions. Keep arms straight. Do this motion slowly several times.
The Core Twist: Hold arms out, bent at shoulder height. Feet planted on the ground, toes facing forward. Keeping your hips facing forward, twist your upper body towards the back (try to look behind you). Twist from side to side. Twist baby! Twist!

Exercises to Strengthen Your Back Muscles

Any type of exercise will benefit you by improving muscle endurance and increasing strength. Exercises that strengthen your core are the most helpful for improving and building the muscles that lead to good posture. Your core is your torso – shoulders to hips – the source of all your strength to your limbs. Here are three exercises that help improve posture:

Back extensions: Lying face down on the floor with hands behind head. Slowly lift your upper body a few inches off the ground and hold for 5 seconds. Slowly lower to the ground. Repeat 10 – 12 times.
Superman: Lying face down on the floor, lift your right arm and left leg off the floor several inches. Hold for two seconds and then lower. Repeat with left arm and right leg. Do 10-12 repetitions.
Shoulder Squeeze: Lift shoulders toward ears and squeeze together, holding the position for five seconds. Relax and repeat 3-5 times.

Tips for Good Posture

Pad Your Chair – Consider adding lumbar support pad to your office chair. I have a pretty economical cotton pad for my office chair. In fact, I use two of these. This drives other people crazy, since there isn’t much room on the chair, but it’s great for my posture.
Push Butt Towards Back of Chair – When sitting, I find it helpful to remind myself to shift my butt towards the back of the chair. This helps to prevent me from slouching, as long as I continue to lean forward.
Sit on Tip of Chair - When you are sitting on the tip of your chair, you are further from the back of the chair so you are less likely to lean against the back support and slouch.
Breaks & Use of Timer – if you are sitting down most of the day, make a point to get up for breaks often. I set a timer for 40 minutes, when it goes off, I stop working, get up and stretch. Alternatively, go for a walk.
Exercise Ball - Try replacing your chair with an exercise ball. Lean, mean and cost-effective. The exercise ball makes a nice tool for stretching out your back as well. Two birds with one stone, that’s how I roll! (haha, get it? Roll with a ball?) :)

Do you have any posture advice for us? Tips that’s worked in your life? Share with us in the comments. See you there.

If you enjoyed this article, please share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg or bookmark it on del.icio.us. I appreciate your support. :)

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How I Ended My Relationship with Coffee

Tina Su — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 13:16:26 +0000

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.

There are four areas I focused on and found replacements for, which helped me part with my coffee addiction:

Drink - Replacing coffee with Tea. In the beginning, I drank black tea for two weeks during my ‘transition period’. Then overtime, switching to healthier choices, such as fresh fruit, water with lemon. I now relish herbal tea as a fragrant treat.

Thought – Replacing the thought that ‘I need coffee to stay alert’ with ‘I focus on the present moment, and in this moment, I have enough energy in me to stay alert’. The power of attention isn’t limited by what I drink. I am strong and healthy with keen mind.

Habit - Replacing the emotional dependency on the act and habit of ‘getting coffee’ as a form of break, with getting up to stretch, getting a glass of water and eating raw almonds. I realized that I was drinking coffee partly out of habit, “Oh look, it’s 2:30, coffee time!” Like any other habit, I just replaced it with a healthier one.

Need – Replacing the false energy boost with more awareness and care of my body. I learned to listen to my body more. I found it helpful to ask myself, “What do I actually need right now?“. Often, instead of “I need coffee.”, I found the answers to be: ‘I need water, my body is dehydrated.”, “I need to sleep earlier.”, “I need to take five minutes to close my eyes and regroup”, “I need to get up and walk around.”, “I ate too much at lunch.”

The first two weeks was the hardest. I felt unreasonable tired. But once the two-week period was past, I felt less and less tired, less and less coffee cravings. Also, if you are not able to make this last long term after your first try, don’t be so hard on yourself. My first attempt to quit last year failed after 3 weeks of hard work. But the second attempt worked like a charm.

After incorporating this change into my life, I am seeing significant benefit. I have uncovered my real energy. I feel healthier and I love the freedom away from being dependent on a drink. I’m not trying to lecture you into quitting, but merely to share my experiences with you. If cutting coffee out completely is too extreme for you but you’re still interested, you can benefit by reducing the amount of coffee you drink or gradually replacing it with alternatives I’ve high-lighted from the 4 focuses above.

How does your body react to coffee? What do you do when you are tired? I’d love to hear your experiences in the comments.

If you enjoyed this article, please share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg or bookmark it on del.icio.us. I appreciate your support. :)

Other posts about reducing coffee elsewhere:

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