7 Things That Slow Down Your Metabolism--when you want to speed it up tp lose weight

7 Things That Slow Down Your Metabolism

It’s not much of a surprise when we find out that known “healthy” habits and behaviors turn out to be unhealthy.  Many diet myths, health fads and “slim wear” have been debunked or rendered useless – or at best, limited – at one time or another. This brings us to our metabolism – the chemical process human beings use to obtain energy. The body’s ability to use fat as energy instead of storing it is what most people think of when we say “metabolism.” Yes, a well-functioning metabolism is important to our waistlines and hips, but it’s much more complex.
Metabolism involves all of the chemical reactions that take place within our cells in order to keep us alive. Without a healthy, functioning metabolism, our cellular bodies could not receive the necessary energy in order to sustain itself. In short – we’d die. Fortunately, our bodies do not stop metabolizing unless we effectively stop breathing. Our metabolisms can, however, become unhealthy and damaged.
Metabolism plays an important role in various parts of our lives. Not only does it impact how our cells use energy; but how well we sleep, our energy levels, our mood, and even plays a role in how well we digest food and absorb nutrients.
An unhealthy metabolism creates different types of physiological effects, such as:
– Diabetes
– Breathing problems
– Lethargy
– Cognitive decline
– Unstable blood sugar levels
– Organ failure
What causes an unhealthy metabolism? Well, a few different things. It’s quite important that we minimize our exposure to stress, as “stress hormones” such as cortisol and adrenaline counteract the healthy function of our metabolic systems.
So, before we get into the 7 “healthy” habits that harm our metabolism, please remember to minimize stress levels and get regular exercise.  These are probably the two best things we can practice for a healthy metabolism.

 

Here are 7 things that slow down your metabolism:

 

1. Conforming to a diet

There are more weight loss products and weight loss systems on the market now than ever before. Want to know why? Well, then follow the money, of course – $6.3 billion. That’s the amount that weight loss companies reported making in 2015 alone. Americans climbing rate of obesity – combined with a serious market opportunity – means “Ca-Ching,” at least for these peddlers of the “latest, greatest” weight loss fad.
Despite of their proliferation, its best of abstain from a diet regimen altogether. The reason is that the majority of diets focus on entirely on restriction, not alteration. In other words, diets don’t teach us how to make subtle dietary changes (i.e. more protein, less carbs); they instead focus on eliminating – or severely reducing – food that provides fuel to our bodies. Low-carb diets are notorious for this practice. Instead, focus on making lifestyle changes for the long-term.

 

2. Hydrating on just water

Don’t get it twisted…hydration is incredibly important. However, the whole “drink eight full glasses of water each and every day” advice is misleading. Allow us to explain.
The body is a complex system that relies upon a steady stream of healthy vitamins, nutrients and other elements. Unfortunately, overhydrating has led to the misbelief that the gallons of water we’ve ingested have supplied what we need (thank the weight loss experts). The truth is, as healthy as water is, it is not always the best source of hydration for us.
Instead, seek to get a bit of variety. For example, mix some O.J. with water and add a dash of sea salt to get some much needed electrolytes. If it’s only water, mix in a lime or a lemon.

3. Over-restricting sodium intake

Yes, it is important to keep an eye on our sodium intake. The American Heart Association recommends 1,500 mg, which may still be a bit high. However, sodium plays a key role in maintaining our metabolic rate, lowering stress hormones, and aiding digestion.
A better approach is to limit salt intake via processed foods, which are unhealthy for various reasons. Most of us eat too much salt as a direct result of most foods being processed. Instead, make eating wholesome and non-processed foods a part of your lifestyle.

4. Overeating raw vegetables

As with the previous two unhealthy practices, this one needs to be read carefully. We’re talking only about raw veggies here. Simply lightly steaming vegetables most of the time will render this a non-factor.
Vegetables are an incredibly important source of vitamins and nutrients. They’re also very low in calories and sodium, and most contain no fat. But raw vegetables contain a high amount of cellulose – a fiber that is actually used in making paper and paperboard! Our digestive systems are not meant to handle large quantities of this compound, which can also lead to an assortment of digestive problems, creating a slow metabolism.

 

5. Too much cardio

Part of this is a societal trend. We seem to place more emphasis on sweating all over the elliptical machine or a treadmill as opposed to practicing a variety of different exercises.
The truth is there are some health benefits available in other types of exercise that isn’t available in cardio. Besides, High intensity interval training (HIIT) can give us most of the benefits of an hour-long run without all the added stress hormones.
Muscle-building is also great for achieving some upper and core body strength, boosting our moods, improving brain function, etc. The cool thing is that is that it can be a variety, too: weightlifting, bodyweight training, and yoga are all considered muscle-building exercises.
Also, consider mixing in a bike ride, nature walk or hike. This allows us to get in a cardio fix while also giving the body a bit of a break so we don’t slow down our metabolism.

 

6. Overloading on fiber

Fiber is an important nutrient for our bodies, especially in the digestive system. However, too much fiber contains elements that can prevent the absorption of important nutrients, thus slowing down your metabolism.
Also, eating too much fiber when having digestive problems can create even more complications. This occurs when there is too much gut flora – microorganisms (i.e. bacteria) that result in digestive problems such as gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea and even dangerous weight loss. When we ingest too much fiber, it feeds this gut flora and further complicates the issue, creating a slow metabolism.

 

7. Eating too much “muscle meat”

Muscle meat is the stuff that many weight trainers trying to add muscle eat a lot of – chicken breast, chicken wings, beef patties, etc. Side note: if these meats are farmed from quality sources, such as grass-fed cows and locally-bred chickens, that’s a much healthier o

The Strongest Drink That Burns Stomach Fat Immediately

This drink, which is also known as balm, eliminates excess fat and water from the body, improves the function of the brain, memory, hearing and vision.
This drink includes fresh horseradish, unpeeled lemons and honey. It has already been said a lot about honey and lemon, but the health benefits of horseradish are rarely mentioned.

Horseradish is a powerful and pungent plant with a wide variety of health benefits, including its ability to aid weight loss, lower blood pressure, alleviate respiratory conditions, build strong bones, improve immune system health, stimulate healthy digestion, and promote heart health. The extraordinary health benefits and the importance of this root has been known for thousands of years, and it is now available all across the world.

It is rich in nutrients and minerals, which includes dietary fiber, vitamin-C, folate, potassium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, and manganese, as well as enzymes and oils, like sinigrin, a powerful glucosinolate.
Horseradish is very low in calories, only 6 per serving, and has no fat whatsoever. It is perfect for weight loss.
Fresh roots can be used all year round, if timely buried in moist sand or kept in the basement. If you have a larger root, you can grate the required amount, and the rest of the wrap in aluminum foil and leave in the refrigerator in a box of vegetables.
If you want your grated horseradish to remain fresh even after three weeks, mix it with a teaspoon of sugar and 4 tablespoons of lemon juice or vinegar.
In tightly closed jars, horseradish can stand in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.
DRINK RECIPE FOR WEIGHT LOSS
– 125 g of horseradish
– 3 lemons (before use, place them in a container filled with water and a tablespoon of vinegar for 10 minutes to wash away pesticides)
– 3 tablespoons honey
Procedure:
In a blender add 125 grams of horseradish and blend it well. Cut the lemons (unpeeled), remove the seeds, and add them in the blender. Mix everything together until you get a smooth consistency. Then, add three tablespoons of honey and mix everything well.
Keep this drink in a sealed jar in the fridge.
Dosage:
Take one teaspoon of this balm twice a day with meals for 3 weeks.
Source: http://mynaturalwayoflife.com

Cancer Screening Has Never Saved Lives

'Cancer Screening Has Never Saved Lives' - BMJ Study Concludes

Millions have marched for "cancer causes." Millions more have been diagnosed "early" and now believe screening saved their lives. But a new study confirms something we have been reporting on since our inception: In most cases, screening not only has not "saved lives," but actually increases your risk of dying.
An extremely important new study published in the British Medical Journal titled, "Why cancer screening has never been shown to "save lives"—and what we can do about it," confirms something we have been reporting upon at GreenMedInfo.com since our inception, namely, cancer screening has not lived up to its long held promise of "saving lives" because disease-specific reductions in mortality do not equate to reductions in overall mortality. Worse, in some cases overall mortality actually increased because of screening. 
In the new study, Vinay Prasad and colleagues, argue that the real benchmark for the success of any cancer screening program is if the "early stage" cancers being diagnosed and treated actually result in a reduction in the overall mortality.
For instance, we have reported extensively on the widespread misclassification of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) as a bono fide malignant cancer, as well as its epidemic level overdiagnosis and overtreatment. Tens of fhousands of women are diagnosed each year with these so-called "early stage breast cancers," even though the National Cancer Institute itself acknowledges it should be classified as a benign or indolent lesions of epithelial origin. The New England Journal of Medicine published a study in 2012 shows that approximately 1.3 million women were diagnosed with DCIS in the past 30 years, with most receiving either mastectomy, lumpectomy, radiation, chemotherapy, or some combination thereof. Ironically, many of these women ardently believe that their lives were "saved" by the screening and treatment, succumbing to the biomedical equivalent of Stockholm syndrome where identifying with the 'aggressor' becomes palliative. In reality, most suffered irreparable harm not from the "cancer," but from both the psychological and physical effects of being wrongly diagnosed and treated. If the end point were not breast cancer specific mortality ('invasive' breast cancer has not declined but increased with screening, indicating overdiagnosis), but overall mortality, it is likely that these DCIS diagnosed women's lives were significantly truncated because of screening programs; at the very least, the quality of their lives would have been significantly negatively impacted.

Much of the damage, pain, and suffering associated with over-medicalization could have been avoided if public health advocates and private industry promoters of screening programs had realized that reducing the risk of cancer in one bodily location -- the breast, the colon, the lung, the thyroid -- does not necessarily translate into a reduction in mortality risk everywhere else. It is this meme-plex of medically-reinforced ignorance which drives the many disease-specific, multi-billion dollar, cause-marketing campaigns, like the heavily pinkwashed "Breast Cancer Awareness" campaign, which increasingly the public is acknowledging to be a highly unethical money-making scheme.
The article summarizes the problem associated with confusing disease specific with overall mortality reduction, succinctly:

Despite growing appreciation of the harms of cancer screening,^1 2 3 advocates still claim that it "saves lives."4 This assertion rests, however, on reductions in disease specific mortality rather than overall mortality.

Using disease specific mortality as a proxy for overall mortality deprives people of information about their chief concern: reducing their risk of dying.^5 6 Although some people may have personal reasons for wanting to avoid a specific diagnosis, the burden falls on providers to provide clear information about both disease specific and overall mortality and to ensure that the overall goal of healthcare—to improve quantity and quality of life—is not undermined.⁷

In this article we argue that overall mortality should be the benchmark against which screening is judged and discuss how to improve the evidence upon which screening rests."

And so, without the proper benchmark or end point, all the educational and fund-raising efforts going towards "reducing deaths" or "saving lives" from breast, prostate, lung, skin, brain, [insert body part], become misleading, if not overtly propagandist in nature.

Indeed, the extant scientific evidence itself reveals that at best the present disease specific agenda for "cancer prevention" is pseudo-scientific. In the section of the study subtitled, "Why cancer screening might not reduce overall mortality," the authors summarize what the literature reveals on the topic:

Discrepancies between disease specific and overall mortality were found in direction or magnitude in seven of 12 randomised trials of cancer screening.8 Despite reductions in disease specific mortality in the majority of studies, overall mortality was unchanged or increased. In cases where both mortality rates were reduced the improvement was larger in overall mortality than in disease specific mortality. This suggests an imbalance in non-disease specific deaths, which warrants examination and explanation. A systematic review of meta-analyses of cancer screening trials found that three of 10 (33%) showed reductions in disease specific mortality and that none showed reductions in overall mortality.9

The implications of this are profound.
As we reported previously with Anjelina Jolie's decision to have her breasts and ovaries prophylactically removed, ostensibly to "reduce her risk of dying," removing healthy body parts to prevent disease-specific mortality is unlikely to reduce the overall risk of dying. And yet, the "Jolie effect" is a well established phenomena. Her decision was lauded the world over as courageous and  an "evidence-based" precautionary step, with tens of thousands of women (and some men) following suit. We hope the new BMJ study raises a flag of true caution for those who may habitually and uncritically follow the celebrity-centric herd mentality.
The significant harms of screening overdiagnosis and overtreatment extend to men as well. For instance, aggressive prostate screening programs over the past few decades have resulted in the removal and/or irradiation of millions of men's prostates. A 2004 study found that an astounding 200,000 men are being diagnosed annually with prostate cancer.¹ Tragically, the 2013 National Cancer Institute report referenced above also found that so-called "early stage prostate cancer," high grade intraepithelial prostatic neoplasia (HGPIN), is also essentially a benign lesion within prostatic epithelial tissue, not unlike DCIS in women's breasts. In other words, millions of men were diagnosed with a potentially lethal "pre-cancer" or "early stage cancer" they never had.
As an aside, it should be noted that even in the case of lesions of true concern for malignancy, there is always hope. Cancer is not an inexorably lethal, genetic mutation-driven process that happens in an environmental, nutritional, and psycho-spiritual/emotional vacuum. Instead of viewing it as the biological equivalent of a terrorist, and cutting, burning, and poisoning the target tissue (and, collaterally, the entire body of the host), we need to abandon the warfare model of allopathic medicine and adopt one that focuses on targeting cancer stem cells in non-toxic ways, looking at carcinogenesis through the lens of the informational dysregulation of genetic and epigenetic pathways in the cell; informational "disease" in contradistinction to physiochemically-based disease is, of course, more prone to being reversed. Cancer, in this view, can be halted in its tracks, and even regressed, assuming that, along with informational corrections (e.g. "nanopharmacological" approaches like homeopathy, "energy healing," high quality food (which is also information-containing)), the tumor microenvironment can be adjusted back to healthier conditions through detoxification, lifestyle modifications, mind-body interventions, and targeted, "high dose" nutritional support.

A hypnotherapy article

You may have heard the rumblings… “Hypnotherapy helped my mom quit smoking”… to which the onlooker replied...
”Pshh! Yea right, I don’t believe in that stuff. It’s all mind-control and chickens and Office Space shenanigans.”

They're entitled to their opinion, it’s just that they're wrong.

American Health Magazine lets us know that after 6 hypnotherapy sessions clients experienced 93% recovery, whereas after 600 psychoanalysis sessions clients experienced 38% recovery.
Why? How? When? Why?!

Good questions, I asked them too before I became one of the world’s leading hypnotherapists.
Come hang out with me during this free webinar to learn how hypnosis can help with all the ish we wish therapy could fix.

P.S. You won’t learn how to cluck but you will learn a 60 second stress relief process that is so effective I decided to teach it to 4 million peeps (get it? PEEPS!) on national TV and they LOVED it.
P.P.S. I call hypnosis “meditation with a goal”… so that’s what it’s gonna be like. Click “learn more” now to save your seat in the free webinar…hurry up! This ad is funny so seats fill up fast.  Lost the author--Grace someone. Please advise if you know.

I haven’t bought anything new for 200 days. This is what I learned

A few months ago, I went through the worst experience of my life: my father passed away. He had cancer.
In our society, you can’t just mourn a person’s loss — you need to work. Not just at your job, but on piles of paperwork, people to notify, and arrangements to be made. Finally, when I thought all of the hard work was over, I had to empty out my father’s apartment.
This is thankless work.
Going through my father’s old things, I felt the loss of my father with each and every item I sorted.
And there was a lot of sorting to do.
It took weeks to clear out the lifetime of possessions in my single father’s small apartment. Weeks to sell, donate, recycle, or throw out the boxes and boxes of kitchenware, clothing, furniture, office materials, and so much more…
I threw away a normal life of accumulation. A life you and I all go through.
Time, money and effort had been heavily invested in getting all of this stuff — only to be disposed of with great difficulty. We are destroying the planet for future generations, all so that we can enjoy a short lifetime full of material possessions that in many cases are hardly used, rarely necessary, and easily forgotten.
These were sobering thoughts for me.
I embarked on an experiment lasting 200 days where I would try to buy nothing new. Could I survive 200 days without paying tribute to the mall?
I did. Excluding groceries, medicine, a pair of rock climbing shoes and basic toiletries, I borrowed and bought secondhand, or simply went without.
Here is what I learned from this experience.

1. There is already too much stuff in the world

As I toured various thrift stores, online classifieds, Facebook buy/sell groups and the like, I was shocked to see the sheer volume of stuff we humans have already created. Mountains of clothes, tons of furniture, dishes, pans, walking sticks — an ocean of all things imaginable. As all of this stuff is being thrown away, more is being churned out. We don’t need more.

2. People buy things out of pure compulsion

As I looked to fill my needs through preowned sources, I was blown away by the amount of new items in thrift stores. Items that were unused, complete with price tags and original packaging. Everything from new scented candles to new clothing graced the aisles of secondhand stores. This showed me that the act of buying is often completely disassociated with needing, or even wanting. It just seemed to be like a compulsion that needed to be filled and that was the end of it.

3. There is an unreasonable stigma against pre-owned

As I blogged about my experience, I got a lot of interesting feedback on the hygienic aspect of my efforts. Many felt that buying clothing, furniture, and other goods used instead of new was dirty and uncivilized. What a weird mentality! These same people would happily donate their used goods to thrift stores. I guess it’s good enough for the poor — but not for “us.“

4. There is so much abundance

During my 200 days, I learned that I didn’t need to go to big box stores to buy what I needed — there was plenty in my community. Local thrift stores and classifieds had most of the goods I needed. Our communities have an abundance of stuff and plenty of people willing to give it away at a very low price or for free.

5. When nothing is new, nothing is expensive

My bank account definitely got a break during these 200 days. Secondhand comes at a delightfully steep discount. I never felt that I compromised on quality, either!

6. It’s fantastic paying a person instead of a corporation

Especially when shopping through classifieds, I found that most sellers were honest and helpful. They were normal people just wanting to recoup a portion of their purchase price by selling perfectly usable items. It was refreshing to know that my money would be going directly to someone just like me, instead of a faceless corporation.

7. I don’t really need most of that stuff

Truth is, some things you simply cannot find preowned. Lots of items, even common ones, are either impossible or impractical to find preowned. When I was forced to not buy them — against my strongest impulses at times — I was surprised how often nothing changed. Not my health, happiness, or inner harmony. I realized that most things are really just ”nice-to-haves“ — real needs are very limited.
My 200 days was not only an optional experience in sustainable living and minimalism. It was a necessary and transformative journey.
When someone dies, you’re expected to “get past it” and go back to normal. I thought that even worse than losing my father would be if I came out of the experience unchanged.
Instead, I allowed the experience to change me deeply. I’ll never ”get past it,” because every day my father’s passing inspires my words, my actions, and my views on life.
I hope that you might allow this post to change you a bit as well. Maybe you’ll pay a visit to a thrift store for your next clothing purchase, or embark on your own 10, 30, or 200 day challenge. At the very least, I hope you’ll just change the way you think when you buy another item.
Source: collective-evolution.com

10 things worth doing every morning

10 things worth doing every morning before 10 am.

Here we present a short list of activities which are guaranteed to give a great start in the morning. Take a look — and have a great day!

Meditate

Meditating or even some simple breathing can help you begin your day with a sense of calm. Instead of reaching for your phone or checking email first thing in the morning, take just a few minutes to sit and experience the quiet.
There is plenty of activity during our day, make a commitment to start on a quieter note. It will set the tone for your day and will help increase your focus, energy, and optimism.

Reflect in gratitude

“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.” — Meister Eckhart

Start your day by reflecting on what you are grateful for. A consistent practice of gratitude in the mornings will increase your awareness of gratitude throughout your day. It will also make you more resilient when challenges occur and help you put drama in perspective.

Set your daily intention

In the quiet of the day, before the fires need putting out, plan your day by focusing on three goals you want to accomplish. Make those goals a priority for the day. When you set about planning your day with intention, you are more likely to feel productive at the end of it.

Pad your schedule

As you go about setting your daily intentions, pad your schedule to allow yourself to tend to fires as they arise. Padding your schedule with free time will give you a better chance of achieving your goals and may even add some downtime throughout the day.

Hydrate

Your body awakens dehydrated, so it is very important to drink up first thing in the morning. In her book, The Body Ecology Diet, Donna Gates suggests you drink half of your entire daily water intake by mid-morning. It will flush your system of toxins, leave you feeling less hungry and reduce headaches throughout the day.

Stretch

You will be hard-pressed to find anyone who doesn’t wake up feeling a bit stiff. It isn’t always easy to incorporate exercise into a morning routine. If you were going to choose one thing, the American Journal of Sports Medicine suggests adding a short muscle-stretching sequence of exercises to your morning schedule. Studies show that consistent stretching in the morning can increase flexibility, improve circulation, reduce stress throughout your day and improve posture.

Listen to music

Starting your day with upbeat and fun music will not only wake you up but it will fill you with positive energy for your day. A 2013 study found that music makes you feel good. According to study participants, the two most important benefits of listening to music are “mood regulation“ and ”self-awareness.” Not only has it been shown to improve your mood but it can end up increasing motivation, performance, and lead to a better night’s sleep too.

Smile

Start your day off by smiling at yourself in the bathroom mirror. Smiling will have a positive effect on your overall attitude and well-being, even when it starts out a little forced. Smiling makes you more approachable, and appear more trustworthy. In fact, The University of Montpellier discovered that smiling will also make you a more effective leader.

Clean Up After Yourself

Life is busy and morning routines can be a bit rushed. It can be very tempting when you are running behind to leave your clothes on the floor, dishes in the sink or leave the trash until later. Just do put them away!
Procrastination around cleaning up after yourself can prevent you from realizing our highest potential and best work. It also allows you to relax fully upon returning home. It is better to pro-actively clean up after yourself than waiting to be called out on it.

Do Your Hardest Task First

It might seem enticing to get a bunch of easy things checked off your to-do list, but it has been shown time and time again that doing your hardest task first leads to a more productive and happier day. You are more likely to remember the day as being a good one when your day gets better and is easier over time. The bonus: it helps stop procrastination over the things we like to do the least.
Source: powerofpositivity

Drinking Lemon Water In The Morning Is Good For You

They Said That Drinking Lemon Water In The Morning Is Good For You. Here Is What They Didn’t Tell You

By Administrator • On September 19, 2015 • In Healthy Drinks & Recipes Healthy Drinks & Recipes detox, drink, empty stomach, immune, lemon, morning 1

We hear every day that consuming lemon water on an empty stomach in the morning is very health-beneficial, but not many of us are familiar with the actual effects this drink has on the body.
Lemon juice is loaded with flavonoids, potassium, antioxidants, proteins, as well as vitamins B and C. Plus, it’s a powerful antiseptic, antiviral and anti-inflammatory agent.
Lemon water has the ability to strengthen your immune system and prevent infections due to its high bioflavonoid, citric acid, magnesium, calcium and pectin content. When consumed on an empty stomach, it has the ability to detoxify your body, stimulate weight loss and maintain your body’s pH balance. Moreover, it treats digestive issues as well.

16 Ways in Which Lemon Water Helps Your Health

1. Immune System
Lemon water stimulates the function of the lymphatic system, which works together with our immune system.

2. Inflammation
Acidity is the primary cause of inflammation in tissues. The anti-inflammatory properties of lemons counterbalance acidity.

3. Flu and Cold
Lemon boosts your immune system and has many antiviral and antibacterial properties due to its high vitamin C content, which makes it the ultimate remedy for flu and colds.

4. Weight loss
Lemon water is especially beneficial for maintaining healthy weight as well as balancing your blood sugar. The pectin in lemon water wards off cravings, thus reducing your appetite throughout the day.

5. Acne
Drinking lemon water in the morning will regulate the acidic temperature of your body, thus preventing these irritating breakouts.

6. Kidney Stones
Lemons contain potassium which increases citrates in your urine, thus preventing the formation of oxalate.

7. Gall Bladder
Pain inflicted from gall bladder stones can be significantly reduced by drinking lemon water while eating.

8. Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD)
TUMS can be replaced with lemon water.

9. Colitis
Colitis is an imbalance of the acid/alkaline levels in the body and lemon water balances your pH levels.

10. Fibromyalgia
Pain inflicted from fibromyalgia can also be soothed with lemon water. For better results, you can combine it with yoga stretches.

11. Joint Pain and Swelling
As lemon water stimulates the decrease of uric acid in joints, it also reduces inflammation. People with arthritis can particularly benefit from it.

12. Constipation
You can easily treat constipation with lemon water as it stimulates regular bowel movements. Surely, lemon water is amazing for your digestive health.

13. Finger Nail Health
Lemon water strengthens your nails as well as removes the white spots that appear on nails from time to time.

14. Muscle Soreness
After a vigorous workout, drinking lemon water can significantly reduce muscle pain.

15. Food-Borne Illnesses
Prevent food poisoning with lemon water.

16. Alcohol Cravings
Drink lemon water at parties and keep the alcohol craving at bay.

Quit Smoking And Reclaim Your Life

Quit Smoking And Reclaim Your Life: Risks Of Lung Cancer, Other Diseases Decline Significantly

Apr 23, 2014 10:31 AM By Lecia Bushak

When you quit smoking, your body immediately begins repairing itself. cancer.org

It’s hard to stop smoking. Understanding what immediately happens to your body when you stop smoking, however, will help you kick that habit to the curb for good.
The moment you put down your cigarette, your body is already going through positive changes. Just 20 minutes after you quit, your heart rate will return to normal. After two hours, both your heart rate and blood pressure levels will return to normal — and this is when the nicotine begins to fade out of your system.

Your withdrawal symptoms typically begin between two and 12 hours after your last cigarette, and this is, admittedly, the hard part. Nicotine withdrawal will usually reach its peak about three days after you quit, meaning you’ll experience headaches or nausea, as well as crabbiness. However, at this point the carbon monoxide levels in your blood will have dropped back to normal.

After that, if you can defeat the cravings, you have only good things to look forward to: one to nine weeks after quitting, your coughs, shortness of breath, or burning lungs during physical activity will begin to decrease. Years later, your risk of heart disease as well as your risk of various cancers (including lung cancer) will be half that of a smoker’s risk.

Fifteen years after stopping your smokes, your risk of heart disease is equivalent to that of non-smokers. And if you stop smoking before the age of 30, you’re very likely to live the life of someone who has never smoked before — unless you’ve smoked extensively and done irreparable damage to your lungs that can lead to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Quitting smoking has an immediate impact on your body. cancer.org
Putting down the cigarette affects each of your individual body parts, too.

Your Brain

Cigarettes release “feel-good” chemicals in your brain, having an effect on you that is similar to addictive drugs like heroin. The increased release of these opioids is what makes it so difficult to quit. “It appears that smokers have an altered opioid flow all the time, when compared with non-smokers, and that smoking a cigarette further alters that flow by 20 to 30 percent in regions of the brain important to emotions and craving,” David J. Scott, an author of the study examining smoking’s effect on the brain, said in a news release. Removing nicotine from the bloodflow — which typically occurs several days after you stop smoking — will ultimately alter the opioid flow in your brain, and gradually your brain’s chemicals will return to normal. Once you get past the hurdle of initial cravings and withdrawal, your brain won’t be reliant on those chemicals to feel good.

Your Lungs

Lungs have this amazing tendency to regenerate rather quickly. Right after you quit, your airways begin to see a decrease in inflammation, and the cilia — little hair-like things that line them — begin to work again after a smoke-induced paralysis. Cilia, which act as the lungs’ cleaning system, begin repairing themselves just days after you stop smoking and can return to their normal function in a few months’ time.
“Paradoxically, people find that they cough a little more right after they stop smoking, but that’s natural,” Laura Blue wrote in Time magazine. “That’s the lungs cleaning themselves out.”

Your Heart

Quitting smoking is a more effective way to lower your risk for heart disease than common medications like aspirin, beta-blockers, statins, and ACE inhibitors, according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the NIH. The moment you quit smoking, your heart and blood vessels begin to improve, lowering your chance for heart attacks.

Your Teeth

Nicotine stains your teeth, so when you stop smoking, you have a chance to improve their whiteness and strength. Your bad breath, stinking of smoke, will also repair itself into something a bit more neutral. Because tar coating your teeth creates a “film” of sorts, bacteria are more likely to settle there and cause tooth decay. Once you stop smoking, you may need to go through an oral hygiene routine to begin scraping away some of the tar on your teeth. Brush and floss twice a day, and drink plenty of water.

Your Skin

“Your skin reflects your lifestyle and what you eat and drink,” Dr. Andrew Carmichael told Net Doctor. Indeed, smoking has an effect on your skin — increasing your risk for eczema, and speeding up the aging process. The harmful toxins that enter your body through cigarettes include carbon monoxide, tar, formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide, ammonia, mercury, lead, and cadmium — and these all restrict blood flow to the skin and even break down elasticity structures in the skin, like collagen and elastin. This is how smokers’ skin wrinkles so easily.
Though some of the skin damage is permanent, stopping smoking will immediately improve the blood flow and hydration to your skin, making it more full and youthful looking. Drinking plenty of water after smoking cessation will help to get your skin back on track. The processes that lead to extra wrinkles will slow down or stop once the toxins are out of your body. Likewise, if you have bags under your eyes from lack of sleep, removing the smoke from your routine could improve your sleep cycles, according to a Johns Hopkins study.
So don’t give up just yet. You have better looks and fuller health to look forward to.

What Happens When You Quit Smoking –

What Happens When You Quit Smoking – Immediate And Long Term Benefits

By: Mike Barrett

While many people may not know everything smoking can potentially lead to, it is well known that nothing positive on a health level can come out the activity. Advertisers and Hollywood have successfully hammered the idea of smoking into our brains over the last few decades through placement in movies and TV shows, but thankfully people now know the truth concerning the negative health effects and child influence. Of course not all smokers want to quit, but for those who do, you may be surprised to find out what happens when you quit smoking.

What Happens When You Quit Smoking?

If a cigarette is in your mouth right now, finish it. Once you finish it, don’t ever pick up another one. If you did this right now, your body would go through amazing changes starting just 20 minutes after you finish that cigarette.

If you want to quit but are having a difficult time mentally shifting, learning what happens when you quit smoking may very well provide you with that final push. The health effects of smoking can be terrible, but the effects of quitting can be phenomenal. This positive spin on the benefits of quitting rather than the negative effects of continuing may be what one needs.

Here are some of the many benefits of quitting smoking and a timeline of what will happen once you quit smoking. You may (or may not) be surprised by what you see.

Let us know what you think of this.

• In about 20 minutes, your blood pressure and pulse rate will decrease, and the body temperature of your hands and feet will increase.

• At approximately the 8-12 hour mark, the carbon monoxide level in your blood will decrease to normal and your blood oxygen level will increase to normal.

• At 24 hours the chance of you having a heart attack decreases significantly.

• At about 48 hours, nerve endings begin to regrow and your ability to smell and taste is enhanced.

• Between 2 weeks and 3 months, your circulation improves, walking becomes easier, and coughing and wheezing is experienced less often. Phlegm production decreases and at about the 3 month mark, lung function is significantly improved.

• Between 1 and 9 months, you will experience all of the benefits already listed  in addition to less sinus congestion, fatigue, and shortness of breath. Cilia, tiny hair-like structures that move mucus out of the lungs, also regain normal function.

• In 1 year, your risk of coronary heart disease and heart attacks is reduced by half of what it used to be when you were a smoker.

• Between 5 and 15 years, the risk of having a stroke returns to normal, before you started smoking.

• At about the 10 year mark, your chance of developing various cancers including cancer of the lungs, mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney, and pancreas, greatly decreases. Risk of lung cancer reverts to that of a non-smoker. In fact, Diet and smoking habits make up nearly 60 percent of cancer cases.

• In about 15 years, your risk of coronary heart disease and heart attack shifts to that of a person who has never smoked before. The risk of death also drops nearly to the level of a non-smoker.

Even with the exclusion of the incredible amount of money you would save from quitting as well as the negative influence being omitting from society, the above benefits of quitting are more than convincing. So what happens when you quit smoking? Your health once again returns.

10 foods to improve your mood

Spoiler alert: Those so-called comfort foods aren't doing you any favors.

By: Melissa Breyer

Fight anxiety with the fork? Eggs are a good place to start. (Photo: Peshkova/Shutterstock)

More than a third of us reach for comfort foods during stressful times; starchy foods and desserts are go-to foods when the going gets rough, according to a recent national survey. But as it turns out, the foods that provide quick comfort may lead to more stress in the long run. 

As David Ludwig, a professor of pediatrics and nutrition at Harvard University and a researcher at Boston Children's Hospital, tells NPR, "When we feel stressed we seek foods that are going to comfort us immediately, but often times those foods lead to surges and crashes in hormones and blood sugar that increase our susceptibility to new stresses." Oops.

Many of us have a lot of stress in our lives and short of running away from home and joining the circus, much of that stress is out of our control. But we can do things to prime our bodies to best deal with it. "Our body chemistry can very much affect how that stress gets to us," says Ludwig. And indeed, there are components of food that seem to have a strong relationship with mood on a chemical level.

For example, foods that are high on the glycemic index (that is, food from which the sugar is quickly absorbed, like refined carbs) make blood sugar surge, and then crash, resulting in spikes of the stress hormone adrenaline.

While there are many different approaches for dealing with stress, arming your body with mood-boosting food is one of the most basic places to start. Try adding the following foods to your diet — and step away from the white pasta and cake.

1. Pumpkin seeds
The humble pumpkin seed is a mighty source of potassium, phosphorus, zinc and especially magnesium. Only about one-third of Americans meet their daily magnesium needs; not enough of this important mineral can lead to a higher risk of headaches, anxiety, fatigue, insomnia, nervousness and high blood pressure. Magnesium is a brain super food, and a whole lot of it is getting thrown out when you carve pumpkins and toss those seeds!

2. Dark, leafy greens
Kale, Swiss chard and other dark, leafy greens are packed with magnesium, a deficit of which can lead to the complaints listed above, which work to create the perfect environment in which stress thrives.

3. Eggs
The gold standard of protein, eggs also provide calcium, iron, zinc, selenium, phosphorous, and vitamins A, D, E, and K – all in one little 80-calorie package – making them one of the most nutritionally-dense foods around. Drew Ramsey, a psychiatrist at Columbia University and author of "The Happiness Diet," praises nutrient-rich foods for battling stress and notes that scrambled eggs are part of his favorite anxiety-reducing breakfast.

4. Carrots and celery
Carrots, celery and their crunchy brethren work more on a mechanical level. Chomping and chewing work as physical relief to stress, and may be particularly helpful for those who have a habit of grinding their teeth. Bonus: They also help to fight bad breath!

5. Fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids (like sardines, salmon, canned tuna)

Eating fish can have many benefits, including combatting stress. (Photo: HLPhoto/Shutterstock)

Omega-3 fatty acids can help soothe your mood by quelling the body’s response to inflammation, says Joe Hibbeln, a researcher at the National Institutes of Health who has spent decades studying how omega-3 fatty acids in fish effect emotional health. He notes that studies show how omega-3s help buffer neurons from the harm that chronic stress can create. Omega-3 fatty acids have also been linked to helping with depression as well as encouraging more positive social behavior in children. (And yes, there's the mercury issue, but there are ways around that problem.)

6. Flaxseed
Some consider flaxseed to be one of the most powerful foods around, and with good reason. There is some evidence showing it may help reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes. Its high omega-3 content lands it in NPR’s list of stress-busting foods, and there are testimonies across the Internet of people who praise flaxseed oil for saving them from depression and mental illness. Meanwhile, the National Institutes of Health notes that there is some evidence that taking flaxseed oil might improve attention, impulsiveness, restlessness, and self-control in children with ADHD.

7. Whole grains
Whether on their own — like brown rice, quinoa or oatmeal — or in whole-grain products like breads and pasta, we’re talking hearty carbohydrates that have not had all of their nutritional integrity processed out of them. Carbs prompt the body to produce more serotonin, the chemical that is commonly known as the “happiness hormone.” By getting your serotonin from complex carbs that are not as easily digested as simple carbs, your blood sugar levels will also be more stabilized.

8. Red peppers, papaya and kiwi
What do these three foods have in common? They have more vitamin C per serving than oranges; and vitamin C is the key here. Multiple studies point to C for curbing stress hormones. As Psychology Today reports: “People who have high levels of vitamin C do not show the expected mental and physical signs of stress when subjected to acute psychological challenges. What's more, they bounce back from stressful situations faster than people with low levels of vitamin C in their blood.” Berries, broccoli, Brussels sprouts and leafy greens all boast high vitamin C levels as well.

9. Tea

Relax with a cup of tea. (Photo: Masson/Shutterstock)
Drinking black tea may help you recover from stressful events more quickly, notes WebMD. One study looked at people who consumed four cups of tea daily for six weeks, compared with people who drank something else. At the end of the study, the tea drinkers reported feeling calmer and had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol after stressful situations. Meanwhile, chamomile tea has been used for ages to calm jitters and relieve stress.

10. Dark chocolate
Cocoa flavanols in chocolate can help boost the mood and sustain clear thinking; and study after study touts dark chocolate’s ability to increase feelings of wellness and decrease stress. Not to mention, it might make you smarter. Is it just a coincidence that the higher a country's chocolate consumption, the more Nobel laureates it creates? More chocolate, please.

7 scientifically proven ways to stop worrying

All that worrying is bad for your health, so learn how to take back control of your thoughts.

By: Laura Moss

Worrying can often become an endless cycle. (Photo: B Rosen/flickr)

Between work problems, personal concerns and all the other stress life throws your way, it’s easy for daily worries to become overwhelming. And while our worries can be helpful — they get us to take action and address our problems — too much worrying can lead to anxiety, which can affect our happiness and our health.
Chronic worrying can interfere with your appetite, relationships, sleep and job performance, and it can even have serious mental and physical consequences like depression, suicidal thoughts, digestive disorders, immune system suppression and heart attacks.


“The problem with worries is that because they hinge on uncertainty, it is very easy to get stuck in a vicious cycle in which no matter how much we worry and prepare, we still can’t reach 100 percent certainty,” writes psychologist Amelia Aldao. “This makes us feel anxious and, in turn, we respond to that anxiety with more worry, which in turn makes us feel more anxious.”
How do you stop this cycle of worrying? We’ve got seven suggestions to help you take back control of your thoughts.

1. Make a list.
Write down all of your worries on a piece of paper, acknowledging them one by one, and then group them as appropriate. Creating a visual account of the things you’re worried about can help you realize how short the list actually is, especially when you’re able to see that several worries all fall under the same umbrella. You may feel like you’re worrying about hundreds of things, but really there are only a few sources of anxiety.
"It might be counterintuitive, but it's almost as if you empty the fears out of your mind," study researcher Sian Beilock, a psychology professor at the University of Chicago, told U.S. News. "You reassess that situation so that you're not as likely to worry about those situations because you've slain that beast."
A walk in the forest can help alleviate stress. (Photo: Tom Tom/Shutterstock)

2. Go outside.
Shinrin-yoku, which means “forest bathing” in Japanese, is the practice of spending time in nature, and it’s proven to help you relax.
A Stanford study found that people who spent time in the great outdoors “showed decreased activity in a region of the brain associated with a key factor in depression.” Other studies have found that exposure to phytoncides — compounds found in trees such as pines, cedars and oaks — can lower blood pressure, relieve stress and boost white blood cell count.

3. Eat healthy and lay off the caffeine.
Stress affects people in different ways. Some may eat less, others may eat too much, and others may opt to consume unhealthy foods. However, eating poorly can prompt new worries and generally make you feel poorly.
Also, try to avoid caffeine when you’re stressed. Caffeine stimulates the nervous system, which can trigger adrenaline, making you feel more jittery than you already are.

4. Schedule a time to worry.
Setting aside designated time to address your worries can help you take control of your thoughts — instead of letting your worries take over.
“When we're engaged in worry, it doesn't really help us for someone to tell us to stop worrying," said Tom Borkovec, a psychology professor at Penn State University, told LiveScience. "If you tell someone to postpone it for a while, we are able to actually do that.”
So set your worries aside until it’s time to tackle them, and when you do, focus on finding solutions to what plagues you.
Regular meditation has numerous health benefits. (Photo: Piotr Marcinski/Shutterstock)

5. Meditate.
Taking up meditation can be a great way to reduce stress and calm your worried mind. Research from Carnegie Mellon University found that people who practiced mindfulness meditation for 25 minutes for three consecutive days reported less stress, and a 2014 analysis of meditation studies conclude that the practice is moderately effective in alleviating depression and anxiety.

6. Get busy.
Distracting yourself from your worries can be an effective way to put them to rest. Find a task that will engage both your hands and your mind, such as playing a game or crafting, and focus solely on that. A study by the Medical Research Council found that keeping you brain and your hands busy interferes with storing and encoding images, which explains why worry beads have often been used to deal with stress.

7. Exercise.
You’re likely used to seeing exercise prescribed to treat everything, but there’s a good reason for that: It works. Regular exercise is a natural anxiety treatment that increases levels of serotonin — which is known as the “happy chemical” — in the brain.

Happiness Club Key 8: Be more positive

Join our growing tribe of readers who are choosing to spread joy by creating Happiness Clubs around the world, with guidance from Psychologies and Action for Happiness. This month, Suzy Greaves is focusing on how we can all be more positive in our everyday lives

23 December 2015 } by Psychologies

We’ve spent the summer months in my Happiness Club creating new goals and finding ways to be resilient. We’ve been writing novels, planting gardens, and supporting each other through life’s challenges.
Over the months we’ve become firm friends, which is good news, because one of the recurring themes in most of Action for Happiness’s 10 keys to happiness is that connection and friendship will only enhance our lives.
Generating joy
This Happiness Club, we’ve realised that being more positive is a learned skill. Recent research shows that regularly experiencing emotions such as joy, gratitude, contentment, inspiration and pride creates an ‘upward spiral’, helping to build our inner well of wellbeing. But what about when we’re feeling sad, mad and bad? ‘Yes, we need to be realistic about life’s ups and downs, but it definitely helps to focus on the good aspects of any situation – the glass-half-full rather than the glass-half-empty,’ says Vanessa King, positive psychology expert at Action for Happiness.
The purpose of positive emotions has long been a puzzle. Although they’re nice to have, it doesn’t appear they’re vital for the survival of our species.
Negative emotions, on the other hand, are essential – triggering our fight-or-flight response if we face threat. For example, when we see a predatory animal charging at us we feel fear, and rapid changes occur in our brain and body. We instinctively focus on the source of danger and escape routes, driving us to immediate responses – in this case, to get the hell out of the way.
However, recent groundbreaking scientific work is showing that positive emotions can broaden our perceptions, in much the same way that negative emotions can narrow them. This broadening helps us to see more, respond more flexibly and in new ways, and be more creative. It makes us more open to different ideas or experiences and we feel closer to and more trusting of others, King explains.
Long-term effects
And it doesn’t stop there. ‘Feeling good in the short-term can also help us feel good in the long-term. The new experiences and greater openness that result from positive emotions can lead to lasting changes in our lives,’ says King. Here, she gives a few simple examples:

• A feeling of interest in something we read can lead us to learn more about a subject, resulting in a fulfilling hobby or even a rewarding life’s work.
• Finding the same things funny as someone else can lead to them becoming a close friend or even a partner.
• Feeling joy from seeing beautiful trees in the park can put us in a positive frame of mind and make us more enthusiastic about an opportunity that comes our way.

‘Over time, positive emotions can help us to build the resources that lead to happier lives, such as friends, knowledge, better problem-solving and even better health. What’s more, they can act as a buffer against stress and help us cope when we face difficulties,’ she says.
But isn’t it unrealistic to expect never to feel negative emotions? ‘Yes, of course, these are part of life, but we need to get the balance right,’ says King.
She suggests that we need to have more positive emotions compared with negative ones. ‘This is called our positivity ratio. And science is now giving us some clues as to a good balance to aim for. It seems that to get the benefits of positive emotions in the longer term, we need to have around three times as many of these as we do negative emotions. These don’t need to be huge surges of joy; small instances of gently positive feelings count,’ she says.
But, of course, it’s not so easy. Our brains are naturally wired for a negative bias, which stems from when early humans had to be on alert for signs of danger, and we developed negative emotions as an internal warning system to keep us safe. In modern times, we obviously don’t need to be on high alert for animal predators, but our brains have not caught up. ‘We need to put conscious effort into the positive side of life. The good news is that small efforts over time can make a lasting difference. Recent research even suggests that this might lead to lasting changes in our brains, which help to maintain the increase in our wellbeing.’
Other good news is that positive emotions are contagious and that when we feel good, it can have a knock-on effect on those around us. Which, I suppose, is what our happiness clubs are all about. Have you started yours yet?
QUESTIONS TO DISCUSS AT YOUR HAPPINESS CLUB:

1. Name the three positive emotions you feel most regularly. What triggers them?
2. What emotional state do you most often find yourself in?
3. How do you process and deal with your negative emotions?
4. What is one thing you could do differently every day to help trigger more positive emotions in yourself?
5. What is one thing you could do differently every day to help trigger a positive emotion in others?

How to set up your Happiness Club
For more details on how to set up your own Happiness Club, see psychologies.co.uk/get-your-happiness-club-started. For video interviews with Mark Williamson, the director of Action for Happiness, and positive psychologist Vanessa King, and to see the highlights of the first ever Happiness Club meeting with Psychologies’ Suzy Greaves, click on: lifelabs.psychologies.co.uk/channels/154-the-happiness-club

The 10 keys of happiness

1. Giving: Do things for others
2. Relating: Connect with people
3. Exercising: Take care of your body
4. Appreciating: Notice the world around you
5. Trying out: Keep learning new things
6. Direction: Have goals to look forward to
7. Resilience: Find ways to bounce back
8. Emotion: Try to take a positive approach
9. Acceptance: Learn to be comfortable with yourself
10. Find meaning: Become a part of something bigger

The 10 keys to happiness that are scientifically proven

 

For Happy January, we've linked up with nonprofit, Action for Happiness, who do incredible work spreading the message of what really makes people happy in communities, schools and workplaces.

Be as kind to yourself as you are to others

Why not conduct your own personal happiness experiment, by trying out the AfH 10 keys to happier living, below.

First, take the Action For Happiness pledge: ‘I will try to create more happiness and less unhappiness in the world around me.’
Below, we've also included a few suggestions to get you started.
You might feel a little doubtful that doing such simple things - like contacting a friend to say how much you appreciate them - can make such a real difference.
But all the 10 keys are evidence-based - and incredibly easy to do. For a full list of actions and suggestions and a list of courses, see the Action for Happiness website.
1 Giving: Do things for others
Try: Do three extra acts of kindness today. Try to bring a smile to others.

2 Relating: Connect with other people
Try: Make more time for the people who really matter to you.

3 Exercising: Take care of your body
Try: Notice which healthy actions lift your mood and do more of them.

4 Appreciating: Notice the world around
Try: At least once a day, stop and take five minutes to just breathe and be in the moment.

5 Trying out: Keep learning new things
Try: Learn a new skill, however small.

6 Direction: Have goals to look forward to
Try: Think of a goal you’re aiming for and do one thing to get it started.

7 Resilience: Find ways to bounce back
Try: Share how you really feel with someone you trust – and be willing to ask for help.

8 Emotion: Take a positive approach
Try: To smile and say something positive every time you walk into a room.

9 Acceptance: Be comfortable with who you are
Try: Be as kind to yourself as you are to others.
10 Meaning: Be part of something bigger
Try: Give your time to support a good cause and be part of something bigger.

48 Secrets to have a happier life

By Doctor ASKY -

December 30, 2015

Writer and psychologist Sarah Hansen believes that unhappiness comes in many shades of grey. Here are 48 reasons which she thinks make you unhappy, and her suggestions on how to open the mental blinds and let the sunshine back in.

1. Don’t worry
Worry creates inner turmoil. It’s like a rocking chair moving feverishly, but going nowhere. Worrying doesn’t create action, it freezes you so you are unable to think clearly and make changes to ensure the negative outcome never happens. Your energy would be better utilized in changing things that you can control, and letting the rest go. Bobby McFerrin sang it simply enough, “Don’t worry! Be Happy!” The lack of worry can certainly create happiness!

2. Stop trying to control everything
At times, people seem to believe that they stepped straight out of a superhero comic book. They believe that they can control everything very well and things will just turn out exactly what they planned. What a burden to carry! You would certainly need superman’s strength to pick up that weight. However, the reality is that we don’t have the ability to control anything else other than ourselves. Once you make peace with this, you find the pressure is off and you can start to enjoy the scenery of the journey, instead of plotting the impossibility.

3. Don’t hold grudges
Holding a grudge has about the same logic as drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die. You are harming yourself by carrying all of that negative energy. Let the bitterness go… for your own benefit. The person who criticized you is probably having a great time without giving you a second thought, while you waste your life sending them death rays with your mind.

4. Stop thinking that everyone should play by your rules
News flash: the world doesn’t live by your rule book. The sooner you accept this, the happier you will be. No one else got your memo about the way things should be done, how they should treat you, or how to live their lives by your standards and beliefs. People often get angry because someone violates their deeply-held ideals. Yet, trying to do an impossible task — getting everyone to live by your idea of perfection — is bound to create a lot of frustration. Simply take people as they are and appreciate the colorful spectrum of ideas and viewpoints, instead of feeling exasperated by them.

5. Stop comparing yourself to others
Most people play the internal comparison game. Usually, they scrutinize only one small area of that person’s life and see where the match up. For example, I may compare myself to Ironman Champion and Olympian Matt Fitzgerald and determine he’s a better triathlete than me. (We aren’t even in the same stratosphere, by the way.) However, this is only one small area of life. Who knows? Maybe I can ride horses or sing better than him? Looking at only a small fraction of a whole person and ranking that part against yourself is a pointless activity. You are so much more than this one piece of your life that you have under the microscope at the moment. This habit will only create discontent in your life. If you simply can’t stop measuring things, take an inward comparison dive instead. Are you a better person than you were yesterday?

6. Stop believing that you’ll be happy only when all of your dreams come true
Who is the happier person? The one who decides, “I will be happy when I make 100 million dollars,“ or the one who believes, ”I will be happy with a great supper and time with my family?” Having lofty goals are great. But when you tie your happiness to future successes that may or may not happen, you never find joy in the life you live today. Find things that thrill you today, and let tomorrow surprise you.

7. Stop being a glass-half-empty person
If you’re a pessimistic person, you will notice all of the bad in your life. Your perception becomes your reality. Instead, choose to focus on the best in people, the brighter moments, and the beauty and blessings surrounding you. The more you focus on the sunshine, the less the shadows will invade your perspective.

8. Stop making yourself lonely
We are naturally social creatures and nurturing relationships makes up a large part of life. If you find yourself alone and depressed on a Saturday night, make an effort to change it. Finding friendships will certainly improve your enthusiasm for what each day brings. How do you find good friends? Seek out social settings with people who share similar interests and beliefs to build a common foundation and launch a great relationship. Smile, reach out, and be genuinely interested in others. You will be surprised how far this will get you in building life-long connections.

9. Stop seeking materialism over everything else in life.
While money certainly is a great gain in this life, it doesn’t bring happiness. Think about how you would feel if tomorrow was your last day to breathe. Would you really want to make more money, or would your focus turn to connecting with people or having certain experiences? If you live by your values, you will find more fulfillment than materialism could ever bring.

10. Make time for the right things
We all lose our focus at times. However, keeping your activities aligned with your values is helpful in keeping a positive perspective. One good exercise is to list your values and rank them by their importance to you. Then, see how many of your daily activities actually align with your values. Is there a disconnect? If so, what can you do to change it?

11. Stop hanging out with unhappy people
You are the sum of the five people you spend the most time around. If your friends are constant sources of negativity in your life, it may be time to find more positive people.

12. Discover your purpose
So many people have subscribed to the lie that their life purpose is to make it to the weekend. No wonder there are so many miserable clock punchers in the world! Instead of existing, find a way to start living! Find your passion and purpose and pursue them, despite the fact that it may turn the mundane inside out and terrify you. Discovering your part in the story is one of the best pieces in life’s adventure!

13. Stop being an actor and start being an author
You do the world a huge disservice when you try to be someone you’re not. Be authentic. Playing a part you weren’t meant to play to meet outside expectations is just asking for heartache. Even when you try to push down the pit in your stomach, a part of you will always know you are emotionally compromising yourself and your happiness to read lines that you didn’t write, and worse, don’t believe in.

14. Stop yourself getting stuck in the past.
Many people become the product of their pasts. They are the causalities of regret, sorrow, what ifs, and hindsight vision. While we can all learn from our past, staying there is not practical to living in the present. The past can’t be changed or relived. To constantly dwell on it does not create an emotionally healthy outlook.

15. Think about your future and enjoy today
Some people focus so much on the stars that they miss the entire journey’s sights, experiences, and lessons learned in getting there. Find as much joy in the adventure as in obtaining the end goal. If you don’t, you will be frustrated until your future vision is reality. Since this may or may not happen, why limit yourself when you can find just as much happiness in the quest as in the destination?

16. Stop being unhealthy
How you value fitness, healthy eating, stress reduction, and sleeping all impact how much happiness you feel. Emotions are linked to many physical properties in your body. The mind — body connection is very real, and often just adding exercise, sunshine, extra shut-eye, or a healthier diet can improve your mood immediately.

17. Stop being a perfectionist
There are three main types of perfectionism: self perfectionism — where you expect perfection from yourself; social perfectionism — where you believe others expect you to be perfect; and other perfectionism — where you expect others to be perfect. All three examples can be happiness busters. Being perfect is an unrealistic goal for you to place on yourself or others. Constantly falling short of the unattainable will continuously keep you blue.

18. Stop being afraid of the future
Some people are so afraid of making a mistake that they never try. Just imagine how that would have worked out when you were learning to walk! You’d probably still be crawling. Unfortunately, we sometimes lose our bravery as adults and fear trying anything because it may not work. If you embrace this mindset, you will never live up to your potential. This can create a huge dissatisfaction in your life.

19. Stop hiding in your comfort zone
Growth happens outside of our comfort zones. If you are too insecure to move out from the familiar, you will never know the joy of conquering your fears and finding your wings. After all, a bird has to eventually jump to discover he can fly. You can’t stay in the nest forever and be happy watching others soar.

20. Stop living in debt
Too much debt can cause stress, broken relationships, and financial hardships. Working out a plan to get out from under pain of payments can often bring peace of mind.

21. Stop seeking validation
If you keep looking for others to determine your own worth, you will always be disappointed. No person except you should have the power to determine your happiness or value.

22. Don’t neglect personal relationships
Most deathbed confessions don’t laminate spending more time chained to the office or making money. Most people regret the relationships that were neglected in pursuit of things that suddenly lost their importance. Remember, don’t neglect your friends and family. Their love is more valuable than anything else in the end.

23. Stop procrastinating
Procrastination is an endless spiral into frustration. The more you do it, the heavier your load. It’s like trying to run a marathon while picking up rocks along the way. Eventually the stress gets too heavy.
You should finish projects and drop those rocks so you stay light and able to maneuver through your day without dragging 20 other projects you have put off behind you.

24. Learn something
Learning new things brings joy in the discovery of growth. If you’ve stopped learning, embrace a new hobby or discover a new interest. You will find that the excitement of learning brings you extra spring.

25. Stop ignoring your dreams
The ghosts of dead dreams can haunt us. Fortunately, you can always breathe new life into your vision by finding the courage to follow new and exciting possibilities.

26. Stop letting yourself be bored
Many people go through life unchallenged, and this can lead to boredom. After all, technological conveniences, safety regulations, and the ease of modern living can often take the adventure out of life. Some people get stuck in a rut, and become dull without the rough stuff to sharpen things up a bit. There are many ways to still find the wild in your life. You just have to make it a goal to do things that scare you enough and wake you up to the amazing life adventures available to you.

27. Stop overdoing it
If you are spending your time being busy instead of being focused on the things that make you feel alive, you will find happiness an elusive pursuit. Instead of just being busy, learn to refocus your time so that you are effective, while not wasting time on things that won’t contribute to the best life. After all, you can find many things that take up your time, but don’t take you anywhere.

28. Get enough sleep
People who suffer from insomnia have a 10-fold chance of developing depression compared with those who sleep well. Sleep issues have also been linked to many other health issues. So, if you aren’t sleeping well, it’s time to remedy this issue.

29. Spend more time alone
Sometimes, we don’t take the time to separate ourselves from the noise of life to just rejuvenate our minds and focus inward. It’s okay to take time to be alone in a way that relaxes you; whether that’s having a coffee on a park bench under a tree or taking a week-long backpacking trip through the Alaskan mountains. However you spend your solitary moments, don’t forget to take time to step away from all the craziness of life and refocus. Your mental mojo will thank you!

30. Stop being aimless
An aimless life is the source of disappointment and frustration in life. Instead of just letting things happen to you and trying to keep up, create your own future by setting goals and following through on them. One of the greatest joys in life is seeing a goal come to fruition.

31. Stop being dependent on others
While it may be easier to depend on others, becoming independent is one of the hallmarks of adulthood. Those that cling to others with no plan to break free often struggle with self-esteem. It’s hard to find your wings when weighed down by other people’s agendas.

32. Stop thinking you don’t deserve happiness
Some people have the warped idea that they don’t deserve happiness. They may have guilt about their past and feel they should be punished, or just don’t feel that they are worthy of such an emotion. Happiness is something everyone should experience. If you don’t feel you are worthy of it, it is time for a re-adjustment of perspective. Give yourself permission to find your happy place.

33. Stop telling yourself that you’re just one step away
If you are someone who is always one step away from being satisfied, this may be hurting your chances for happiness. If everything is just out of reach, you will never experience the fun you can have in every moment given to you. If there is always something you need to fill up your life, when will this end? Most people who think this way don’t realize that they will never be able to satisfy the greed monster inside. They truly believe their own self lie that if they just have this one last thing, happiness will find them. Those who learn to embrace the joy of the moment, instead of putting it off to a distant future that will never happen, will find that they love life so much more than those always trying to fill the bottomless pit.

34. Stop ignoring opportunities
Sometimes, when opportunity comes to knock on the door, people just decide to keep the TV droning on and not to answer the door. Or, the opportunity looks too much like work, or pushes them out of their comfort zone that they choose to pass on it. However, if this becomes a habit, you will find yourself frustrated when you see times where you passed when you should have held on with every fingernail fiber. It’s hard to be happy when you can’t hold onto the good things that come your way. Take the risk, and jump; you may be surprised how much it changes your life for the better.

35. Stop being complacent
It’s very easy to become complacent. Yet, you can leave this monster any time you want to start swimming toward a better future instead of floating wherever the waters take you. There is a joy found in the struggle that you will never experience in a passive existence.

36. Stop doing a job you hate
You spend most of your life working. So, if you are in a job that you hate, it’s really hard to keep a happy outlook. The best way to change your life is to begin working toward your passion, not just a paycheck.
37. Stop chasing the wrong things
Sometimes we get confused about what really is important for us. Do a deep dive inside to discover what you value most. Then, don’t waste your life chasing the things that don’t really matter.

38. Stop ignoring the spiritual life
Many studies have shown a correlation between spirituality and increased happiness. Being part of a group of like-minded people who focus on helping others and unconditionally loving people certainly would help you find fulfillment in life. Also, many people find prayer and meditation to be very calming and beneficial to their emotional well being. All of these factors, as well as many others, contribute to an overall better mental outlook of people plugged in to the spiritual realm.

39. Stop being afraid of yourself
As strange as it sounds, many people are afraid of being themselves and don’t trust their own instincts. While no one is perfect, if you can’t trust yourself, who else can you trust? Learning to put faith in your own decisions and life course will create a much more satisfying journey than constantly doubting yourself.

38. Stop worrying about what others think
Once people finally accept the reality that you can’t please everyone, life gets so much easier. In fact, having a goal to try to please everyone will simply drive you crazy. There is no reason to exist with other people’s motives and thoughts whispering in your ear. Break free of the people-pleasing cycle and learn to live your own life.

40. Relax more
All work and no play will drive all happiness far away. We all need some down time. If you aren’t getting enough, you are probably fighting back some frustration and stress that don’t have to hold you down. Learn to place a higher priority on learning to de-stress. Your mental and physical health will improve dramatically if you learn to take time to rest and rejuvenate.

41. Take risks
Many people don’t push their life to the limits. If you’re feeling a bit unchallenged and unchanged, maybe it’s time to revisit some risks and push yourself a bit farther. You may find yourself exploring uncharted territory while your friends kick back into the easy-chair arms of the familiar. The excitement of getting over your previous limits creates an enticing existence.

42. Stop being impatient
I’ve always struggled with patience. It’s so hard to wait, but sometimes that’s all you can do. When you learn to approach times where circumstances force you to slow down, try to keep a positive outlook on the situation. After all, the time will pass either way; you can choose to be calm and take your time to make the best decision, or you can make a hasty turn that takes you down a much worse road.

43. Learn from your mistakes
Have you ever noticed how some people never seem to learn? Even though they always come to horrible outcomes, they continue with the same pattern of self-destruction. While it’s easy to see this happen to others, it’s much harder to recognize it in ourselves. If something goes wrong, as tempting as it may be just to block the memory, it’s far better to think through how the negative result occurred and how you can avoid replicating it in the future. Our mistakes do serve a purpose, no matter how painful it is, we need to learn from them.

44. Get a dog
Pet therapy is so effective, it is utilized by hospitals, nursing homes, and disaster relief agencies such as FEMA. Studies show that petting animals releases oxytocin, a feel-good hormone, in both the dog and human. It just stands to reason that having your own live-in pet therapist with a waging tail and puppy-dog eyes will make you smile and brighten your day.

45. Stop equating comfort with happiness
Just because you’re comfortable in your life and job, doesn’t mean you’re necessarily happy. Learn to distinguish between the two feelings. You may discover that even though you have a cushy life, you are dealing with depression. If so, find what makes you happy, and pursue it even at the cost of your comfort.

46. Love yourself
It is impossible to find happiness if you don’t love yourself enough to pursue it. While it may be hard to get out of the boxing ring, it’s time to stop beating yourself up and learn to love the person in the mirror.

47. Stop playing the victim card
If you live your life as a victim, you also believe the lie that you have no power to change it. That’s not a way to embrace a meaningful existence. Instead, change your faulty belief systems and empower yourself to take responsibility for your actions and the corresponding reactions you encounter. Never give your power away to someone else.

48. Let yourself be happy
So, what are you holding onto that’s making you sad? It’s a fair question to ask yourself. Sometimes, we consciously choose unhappiness because we can’t let go. Or, we unknowingly chose it because we haven’t taken a good, hard look at our lives and discovered what we need to cut out. The choice to be happy ultimately lies in your hands. Happiness doesn’t have to be elusive. Sometimes, all you have to do is to open the door to the thrilling possibilities before you.
Source: Lifehack
Photo credit: Steve Ford