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Six relaxation techniques to reduce stress

Practicing even a few minutes per day can provide a reserve of inner calm We all face stressful situations throughout our lives, ranging from minor annoyances like traffic jams to more serious worries, such as a loved one's grave illness. No matter what the cause, stress floods your body with hormones. Your heart pounds, your breathing speeds up, and your muscles tense. This so-called "stress response" is a normal reaction to threatening situations, honed in our prehistory to help us survive threats like an animal attack or a flood. Today, we rarely face these physical dangers, but challenging situations in daily life can set off the stress response. We can't avoid all sources of stress in our lives, nor would we want to. But we can develop healthier ways of responding to them. One way is to invoke the "relaxation response," through a technique first developed in the 1970s at Harvard Medical School by cardiologist Dr. Herbert Benson, editor of the Ha
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สุขภาพเป็นเรื่องผ่อนคลาย

วิธีปฏิบัติเพื่อลดความเครียดมีมากมาย หลายคนอาจเคยใช้ เช่น การเล่นดนตรี การฟังเพลง วาดรูป ปลูกต้นไม้ หรือออกกำลังกาย เหล่านี้เป็นวิธีการที่ไม่เจาะจง สามารถเลือกใช้ได้เมื่อเผชิญกับความเครียดไม่รุนแรง ส่วนวิธีที่จะนำเสนอต่อไปนี้ นับเป็นวิธีการเฉพาะในการลดความเครียดในทางวิชาการ ซึ่งสามารถลดความเครียดได้ ขึ้นอยู่กับว่าใครใช้ได้ผลมากน้อยแค่ไหน เมื่อเครียด กล้ามเนื้อส่วนต่างๆ ของร่างกายจะหดเกร็งและจิตใจจะวุ่นวายสับสน ดังนั้น เทคนิคการผ่อนคลายความเครียดส่วนใหญ่จึงเน้นการผ่อนคลายกล้ามเนื้อ และการทำจิตใจให้สงบเป็นหลัก ซึ่งวิธีที่จะนำเสนอในที่นี้ จะเป็นวิธีง่ายๆ สามารถทำได้ด้วยตัวเอง มี 8 วิธีดังนี้ 1. การฝึกเกร็งและคลายกล้ามเนื้อ 2. การฝึกการหายใจ 3. การทำสมาธิเบื้องต้น 4. การใช้เทคนิคความเงียบ 5. การใช้จินตนาการ 6. การทำงานศิลปะ 7. การใช้เสียงเพลง 8. การใช้เทปเสียงคลายเครียดด้วยตัวเอง ขอให้คุณลองอ่านวิธีทั้งหมดอย่างคร่าวๆ ดูก่อน หากชอบวิธีไหนเป็นพิเศษจึงค่อยอ่านโดยละเอียด และนำไปฝึกฝนด้วยความตั้งใจต่อไป ในการฝึกครั้งแรกๆ ใจอาจจะยังคอยพะวงอยู่กับขั้นตอนการฝึกจนรู้สึกว่าควา

Healthy Thanksgiving Favorites

Thanksgiving dinner doesn’t have to be the kickoff to a month of holiday overeating, ending with a regretful New Year’s resolution and a January diet. The holiday can be festive, even indulgent, without dishes loaded with fats and salt. Take stuffing. Everybody has a favorite stuffing; some cooks like sausage, while others makes theirs of bread and turkey fat. I like to use whole grains. There are two that I love — one with crumbled cornbread, another with wild rice. Each is wholesome, with lots of texture, and a great way to include grains in the holiday meal. This week’s recipes include my favorite Thanksgiving dishes, the ones I make every year (and then wonder why I don’t make them at other times). Several other Thanksgiving standbys have already been published here. I always serve a salad, and some of my favorites include endive, apple and walnut salad, curried Waldorf salad, and spinach salad with seared shiitake mushrooms. If you like mashed potatoes, try this version with ka

Future foods will cater to personal health

Wouldn't it be great if you knew which foods you should be eating based on your own personal health profile? What's for dinner? In the future, you should know exactly what's best for your body, experts say. We know that certain foods are bad for people with particular conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes. Advising a generally healthy person on foods that will prevent future disease, on the other hand, is far more complicated, and represents one of the challenges for scientists working in food science. In the future, people should be able to tailor their diets and supplements to their particular biochemistry, said experts presenting at the annual meeting of the American Association of the Advancement of Science this week. Right now the food industry is centered on products, said J. Bruce German, professor and food chemist at the University of California, Davis. That means profits depend on lowering the cost of production and making things cheaper.

Ginseng: for Health and Strength

In North America and Asia, ginseng was traditionally used for treating a variety of illnesses. In Chinese medicine, ginseng was more frequently used for general preventive purposes. Whereas ginseng was formerly supposed to be confined to Chinese Tartary, it is now is known to be also a native of North America ( species Panax quinquefolium after the five-leaf formation common to the species), and was used by the native North Americans. Chinese Ginseng is a larger plant, but presents practically the same appearance and habits of growth. Asian ginseng, which includes Korean, Manchurian, Vietnamese and Chinese ginseng, is considered to be very "yang", or warm, and is often used for relatively limited periods of time. It contains roughly half the number of active ginsenocides found in American ginseng, which is considered to be cooler, or more "yin", and better suited for long term usage. For this reason American ginseng has become very prized in Asia, and most Ameri

Visit A Nutritionist And Begin Living A Healthier Life

We all want to live long and healthy lives. While being healthy means many things, it primarily starts with your diet and the way you are giving nutrition to your body. And if you are like most people, understanding nutrition can be tricky. This is why so many are turning toward nutritionists to lend them a helping hand. Technically, a nutritionist is a person who devotes professional activity to food and preventive nutrition. They can also advise people on dietary matters relating to health, well-being and nutrition. There are different types of nutritionists. There is the Nutrition Scientist, who uses the scientific method to study nutrients, both as individual compounds and as they interact in food and nutrition. The role of the nutrition scientist is to develop new knowledge related to nutrients or nutrition or to develop new processes or techniques to apply existing knowledge. For example, nutrition scientists have been involved in developing food preservation processes, deter

Hot Colds and Cold Colds: Winter Health

Preventing colds and the flu can be summed up in three words: Wash your hands. The viruses that cause colds and the flu most readily enter our bodies by means of our hands. Wash your hands after shopping. Remind your children to wash their hands as soon as they come home from school. A little "hysterical hygiene" goes a long way to keeping colds at bay. Of course, there are herbs that can be used to help thwart colds and the flu. Yarrow is a clear favorite, especially as a tincture. Teachers, moms, and wise children find a dose of 5-25 drops of yarrow tincture in the morning in some liquid reduces the likelihood of getting sick by more than half. Astragalus is gaining fame for its ability to support strong immune system functioning. I throw a few tongue-depressor-like pieces in my soups, where they infuse their goodness without imparting much flavor. Powdered astragalus can be added to almost anything, from oatmeal to pancakes, soups to gravies. And there is always the ti