Empowering Resolutions: Starting and Keeping Exercise In Your Life

 

Good Morning!

Empowering Resolutions: Starting and Keeping Exercise In Your Life

This month we will be keeping tabs on your New Years Resolutions, in order to empower you, help you to stay on track and give you some great tips for keeping your promise to yourself. 

Exercise is what your body instinctively wants to do especially under stress: fight or flight, and it works. It burns off some of the stress chemicals which tension produces. Therefore, a tired muscle is a relaxed muscle. Regular exercise builds stamina that can help anyone battle stress. But even something as casual as a walk around the block can help you burn off some of the tension that you carrying around. 

Exercise and Love It!  Want to drop the depression? Want to get the blood circulating again? How about stop the aches and pains? Get back to exercise! It is the secret to better brain health, bone strength and good sex! What is stopping you? Here is a secret... exercise by doing something you love! It has to get your heart rate going and you have to do it for 30 minutes. Be creative, get motivated, get moving! 

How To Do It 

By increasing lifestyle activities each day, try doing four 10-minute increases at least five days a week. The idea is to just do more of what you are already doing. Here are some great ideas on getting motivated:

*Walk, don't drive. 

*Take the stairs at the office â€" not the elevator. 

*Play with your kids instead of watching them play. 

*Bike to the store. 

*Stretch while you watch TV. 

*Get up from the sofa to change the channel. Channel surfers get 
quite a workout. 

*Park at the opposite end of the mall from where you're headed. 

*If you've got an exercise bike at home, peddle away for 5 minutes while you're talking on the phone or waiting for the washing machine 
to finish. 

*Walk the treadmill while watching a favorite TV program. 

*Listen to music and dance your way through housecleaning. 

*Start slow â€" a few minutes at first. Then, pick up the pace and go longer. 

*Workout clothes are not necessary, but wear good walking shoes. 

*Don't let missing a few days become your excuse to quit. 

*Even if you miss a few days, you won't lose all the benefits you've gained. 

*Be flexible. Do what you can when you can. 

*Take advantage of opportunities. If you're watching your child's soccer game, walk around the field. 

*Playing golf? Skip the cart. 

*Find a partner. Climbing stairs at the office will be far more interesting if you chat away the minutes with a co-worker. 

*Instead of building your life around exercise, build exercise around your life. 


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Color Therapy and Crystals

 

Good Morning!

Color Therapy and Crystals

Color healing, light therapy and chromotherapy are all terms used

interchangeably with color therapy, which is a set of principles used

to create harmonious color and color combinations for healing. This

form of energy medicine is based on the belief that the human body is

composed of energy fields. When the energy is properly distributed

and circulating freely, the body is healthy. Imbalances or abnormal

amounts of energy are believed to indicate an excess or deficiency.

Color is energy. The energy vibration of that color is what you need,

in the moment, in order to improve and balance your physical and

emotional state.

Chakra Balancing, Aura Cleansing, Colorpuncture, Light Therapy and

Color Therapy modalities of healing are profound and are great

integrative therapies that can be used in conjunction with many other

forms of health care.

History of Color Therapy

Color therapy is a technique of restoring imbalance by means of

applying color to the body. It was a popular method of cure even in

ancient times. Some 2,500 years ago, Pythagoras applied color light

therapeutically and `color halls' were used for healing in ancient

Egypt, China and India.

The first color wheel was invented by Sir Isaac Newton. He split

white sunlight into red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, and blue. He

then joined the two ends of the color spectrum together to show the

natural progression of colors. Newton went a step further and

associated each color with a musical note.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe began studying psychological effect of colors

about a century after Newton. Goethe created a color wheel showing

the psychological effect of each color. He divided all the colors

into two groups: the plus group (red, orange, yellow) and the minus

group (green, blue, indigo, violet). Colors of the plus group produce

excitement and cheerfulness. Colors of the minus group are associated

with weakness and unsettled feelings. Goethe observed that blue gives

a feeling of coolness and yellow has a warming effect.

The pioneer of modern color therapy was Niels Finsen of Denmark.

Following the discovery, in 1877, of the bactericidal action of solar

ultra-violet energy, Finsen studied the possibility of assisting the

healing of wounds with visible light. He subsequently used red light

to inhibit the formation of smallpox scars and, in 1896, founded a

Light Institute ( now the Finsen Institute of Copenhagen) for the

phototreatment of tuberculosis. In 1932, Gerrard and Hessay, two

Californian psychologists, scientifically established that:

• blue light has a calming effect

• red light has a stimulating power on human beings.

Blue and red colors are considered at the two extremes with yellow

representing the midpoint. These are also the three principal colors

in a rainbow.

Every substance on earth contains color. Even the rays cast on earth

by celestial bodies contain color in the form of white light. The

rays of the sun contain seven different colors - violet, indigo,

blue, green, yellow, orange and red. These are natural colors which

are highly beneficial to the maintenance of health and for healing

diseases.

Healing With Color and Crystals

There are numerous ways to heal and balance with color and crystals.

Crystals are color and light captured in a solid form. Crystals incorporate the

energy from their minerals, the intense pressure it took to create them and the

"energetics" from the color they have created over time!

A good rule of thumb is this: "Energy follows thought". Where we put our

thoughts, this is where the energy goes. By concentrating on a

particular healing color, it is the visualization of that color that

will be projected. If we focus on a color, the energy emanates from

our body and begins to change the frequency that resonates with that

particular color.

Color and crystals are captured light energy. Light, which is split into

different wavelengths vibrating at different speeds and different frequencies,

instilled in a crystal. Objects that ABSORB all wavelengths and DO NOT reflect

any, is black. Objects that REFLECT all wavelengths and DOES reflect everything,

is white.

Between black and white lies COLOR. Colors are wavelengths of energy

that, to us, appear as color because of the potential and

capabilities of the object to either absorb or reflect the energy.

This basic principle is how we experience color.

Every substance on earth contains color. The rays of the sun contain

seven different colors - violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange

and red. These are natural colors, which are highly beneficial to the

maintenance of health and for healing diseases.

Crystal Light Therapy

Crystal Light Therapy has been valued throughout history as a remarkable source

of healing. Today, the therapeutic applications of light and color are being

investigated in major hospitals and research centers worldwide. Results indicate

that full-spectrum, ultraviolet, colored, and laser light can have therapeutic

value for a range of conditions from chronic pain and depression to immune

disorders.

The oldest form of light therapy is natural sunlight, which is the ultimate

source of full-spectrum light. For those living in areas that see very little

sunlight this time of year, there are other

options; full-spectrum light therapy, bright light therapy, various

forms of UV light therapy, syntonic optometry, cold laser therapy,

and visual color therapy.

Crystals and Color from a Psychological Perspective

This color experience provides the opportunity to discover for

yourself, the impact colors can have on your well-being. The need for

a particular color's vibration seems to differ from day to day or

even from hour to hour.

When you absorb a color vibration it travels, via the nervous system,

to the part of the body that needs it. Each body has its own optimum

state of well-being and is constantly seeking ways to maintain or

restore a balanced state. Utilizing color, is one way you can help

yourself to harmony!

You can experience the affects of color therapy by the food you eat,

light you experience, clothes you wear, colors you meditate on and

the colors that surround you.

Crystals can be a very affective tool when bringing color into your

life. The color of crystals are associated with the Chakra and Aura

systems are coorelate to the specific layers and centers. Below is a

partical listing of crystals and the Chakra:

Chakra/Crystal/Color Correspondence (a partial example)

The Root Chakra, 1st chakra: red or black: lodestone, ruby, garnet,

smoky quartz, obsidian, onyx, hematite.

The Spleen Chakra, 2nd chakra: orange: carnelian, coral, orange

jasper, orange jade

The Solar Plexus Chakra, 3rd chakra: yellow: amber, topaz, citrine,

yellow calcite, yellow jasper

The Heart Chakra, 4th chakra: green or pink: emerald, tourmaline,

aventurine, malachite, rose quartz, rhodonite, rhodochrosite

The Throat Chakra, 5th chakra: blue: turquoise, aquamarine, lapis,

sodalite, quartz, angelite, aqua aura

The Brow Chakra, 6th chakra: purple: lapis, iolite, amethyst

The Crown Chakra, 7th chakra: white or clear: quartz, diamond, white

amethyst

Recipes: Low Fat Pumpkin Pie

 

Good Morning!

Recipes: Low Fat Pumpkin Pie

INGREDIENTS:

-6 sheets phyllo dough, thawed (use a ready-made, reduced-fat graham
cracker crust instead)
-Cooking spray
-3/4 cup dark brown sugar
-1/2 tsp salt
-1 tsp ground cinnamon
-1/2 tsp ground ginger
-1/4 tsp ground cloves
-1/2 cup egg substitute or 4 egg whites
-1 15-ounce can pumpkin
-1 12-ounce can fat-free evaporated milk
(Serves 8)

PREPARATION:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Cut phyllo sheets in half and stack on wax paper or plastic wrap
(each full length sheet is 14 x 18 inches; if you happen to have 14 x
9-inch sheets, leave whole). Place wax paper or plastic wrap on top
layer and cover with a damp towel to prevent sheets from drying out.

Coat a 9-inch pie dish with cooking spray. Lay a half sheet of phyllo
pastry in pie dish. Spray with nonstick cooking spray. Repeat with
rest of half sheets, fanning out to form a circle. Fold and crimp
edges. Weigh down with pie weights and bake for 10 minutes until
slightly browned.

Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Beat egg substitute or egg
whites with pumpkin puree. Slowly pour in evaporated milk and mix
well. Add sugar and spices to pumpkin mixture and blend thoroughly.
Pour into pie crust; bake for an hour, or until knife inserted in
center comes out clean.