Combating Energy Vampires

Nov 27th, 2007

Are you excited about seeing your family over the holidays but worry about them pressing your buttons?  In the audio interview below, Dr. Judith Orloff gives several suggestions for dealing with people who press your buttons or drain your energy.  She calls these people “energy vampires.”  Her strategies might come in handy during the holidays–or tomorrow at work! 

Don't Flush Old Medications

Nov 26th, 2007

I always thought it didn’t make sense to flush outdated pharmaceuticals down the toilet, but we’ve been told to do this for over 30 years.  We are now learning that this is an environmental taboo. 

According to Nancy Larson, Director of K-State’s Pollution Prevention Institute, “The U.S. Geological Survey has been detecting pharmaceuticals in streams for more than 30 years, but in the last 10 years they’ve been seeing genetic changes in wildlife.” 

Recommendations for handling old or unwanted medications (including both prescription and over-the-counter medications):

1. Nursing homes and other health care providers can send excess or expired drugs back to the pharmacy for disposal.
2. Private citizens whose cities offer a hazardous-waste disposal program should use that option.
3. If no hazardous-waste program is available, mix unwanted medicines into a paste with coffee grounds or kitty litter, seal the result in a lidded container and place it with the rest of the household trash. (I’m assuming you would have to open the capsules to mix them into a paste with coffee grounds.  This doesn’t make much sense to me.  (I would avoid handling and simply place the packaged drugs in the trash for pick up).

More information about disposal is available here.

The United States Geological Service (USGS) has published a national fact sheet detailing these water contamination issues. Get it here.

Eco-Cool Holidays

Nov 26th, 2007

Make Your Holidays Eco Cool

Americans generated nearly 246 million tons of municipal solid waste in 2005 – a decrease of nearly 2 million tons from 2004. The decrease is due in part to the decline in individual waste generation to about 4.5 pounds per person per day, representing a 1.5 percent decrease from 2004. In addition to generating less waste, individuals recycled nearly 1.5 pounds per person per day.

Celebrate the season while reducing Waste at the Holidays:

Test your Holiday Environment I.Q.
1. What percent of all batteries are sold during the holidays?

a. 25
b. 40
c. 55
d. 70

2. Household waste in the U.S. generally increases by how much over the
holidays?

a. 50 thousand tons
b. 100 thousand tons
c. 1 million tons
d. 10 million tons

Answers
Question 1. The answer is b. Be part of the solution. Buy recyclable batteries <<more

About 40 percent of all battery sales occur during the holiday season. Buy rechargeable batteries to accompany your electronic gifts, and consider giving a battery charger as well. Rechargeable batteries reduce the
amount of potentially harmful materials thrown away, and can save money in the long run.

Question 2. The answer is c. Find out how to reduce holiday waste

As we enter the holiday season, consumers flock to malls, department stores and outlets in droves to search for that perfect gift, that one card that says it all, that tree to end all trees. But as we feast, give gifts, decorate and travel, we also consume lots of resources and generate lots of waste.

A recent report noted that the amount of household garbage in the United States generally increases by 25 percent between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, from 4 million tons to 5 million tons. That’s pretty amazing, but I can understand why.  Because of the holidays, we mail millions of cards and buy gifts and household items that are often over packaged.  We also consume more fuel.  If you’d like to be more eco-cool for the holidays and want some ideas, click on this link.

How can you make a difference?

The Greatest Danger

Nov 23rd, 2007

Hey, Lena here from the Wellness Fast Lane.

To listen to the audio version of this message, click here.

“The greatest danger before you is this: you live in an age when people would package and standardize your life for you — steal it from you and sell it back to you at a price. That price is very high.

You have already been selected for this program. You have its credit cards and designer labels already expensively around you. In the months ahead, you will find yourselves working long hours, too exhausted for community life or even good friendships — too compromised to take a stand against the abuses of the system you serve. A great treadmill has been devised for you, and its operators do not care much if it wears you out or kills you. A system is in place to steal your life from you, if you will let it. Don’t let it.”

This is from a blog post by Granny D on CharityFocus.org.

One of the greatest wellness gifts we can give ourselves is thinking for ourselves.

If you’re like me, you’ve probably not trusted your own thinking for quite some time.

The last time you trusted yourself, things didn’t turn out so good.  In fact, you might of been dead wrong.  So now you’re reluctant to trust yourself at all.  Rather than take a chance  and LEARN to listen to yourself, you’d rather play it safe.

At least if you don’t listen to yourself, you can’t be wrong when the outcome is different than you expected.  That way, you can blame the Universe. Blame God. Blame the economy. Blame the President. Blame your family. Blame your friends. Blame your pastor. Blame your husband. Blame your wife. Anyone but you. That’s the easy way.

Will you LEARN to listen to yourself? (Because listening to yourself is a skill that’s learned over time.) Will you trust that if you tap into the Universe, you will get - NOT the outcome that you want – but rather, the outcome that’s the highest good for all involved?

Will you resist the temptation to follow the latest guru, fad, diet, system, program and simply follow yourself? I used to think that fancy programs would ’save’ me and my business. Now I know that only I can ’save’ me.

This doesn’t mean that you don’t educate yourself. This doesn’t mean that you don’t read what other people have to say about self improvement and development. This doesn’t mean that you can’t be a student of life. It DOES mean that you can feel comfortable taking what you KNOW feels right and feeling 100% confident in leaving the rest behind - because you have thought for yourself and you know it’s not for you.

I’ll give you an example:

When Deepak Chopra first became popular, I bought a bunch of his books and audio tapes.  Same thing with Wayne Dyer.  I even paid to see Wayne Dyer speak and I don’t pay to see ANYONE speak. 

I would sit and try my hardest to listen to each of them talk about being “an infinite part of infinite possibilities with limitless bounds” or “connecting to source to set my intention”. I thought something was really wrong with me when I found I couldn’t connect with messages from these gurus – these extremely gifted, spiritually dialed-in people.

I’ve since realized that Dyer and Chopra are great people with awesome messages – just not for me. I respect them as humans. I respect their contribution to the enlightenment of the world. I just can’t get jiggy with their message. That doesen’t make me a tenant of the lower rungs of spiritual development. It makes me me.

For so long, I struggled with learning to think for myself. Yes, me. Boy, I could tell you stories. And, sometimes I still struggle. If sharing my story this day on this blog helps even ONE person to trust themselves, then it’s worth baring my soul.

Here’s what I know: you will lead yourself to exactly where you think you need to be. The question is, where do you really, truly, in the quietness of your soul, think you need to be?

I Miss Her

Nov 20th, 2007

Friends continue to connect and share their wisdom and stories about their loves and losses.  A good friend sent this comforting note:

I heard a story once where a Buddhist teacher cried and cried when one monk died.  Another monk said you’re a master and you understand karma, and transmigration of souls.  Why, when you have such great knowledge is your grief so deep? And the rimpoche said “I’m crying because I miss him!”

Soon, I’ll post a special link for people wanting to share their “I love my pet” stories.

Road Warrior Wellness

Nov 19th, 2007

Hey, Lena here from the Wellness Fast Lane.

I just returned from a whirlwind, fun, high-exposure week-long speaking tour of the left-coast. I met some great people, met people I only knew online and ran into people I hadn’t seen in years.  All in all, I had a great time.

From Las Vegas to Denver to Seattle to Phoenix, I learned a bit about maintaining my wellness lifestyle on the road – and I realized just how far I had come on my wellness journey.

A brief story…

Verne Harnish is a well-known management consulting guru – he owns a company named Gazelles.  Awhile back, he sent out a newsletter that explained why it seems that as soon as you go on vacation, you come down with a cold – or when busy people retire, that’s when they’re diagnosed with cancer – or some other horrible disease.

Although Verne does a much better job of explaining this than I can, essentially he said, that people run around with their adrenaline fired up all day, every day. Then when they take a vacation or relax, the adrenaline subsides and all the symptoms that the adrenaline was masking comes to the surface in the form of a cold or other nastiness.

I cannot tell you how many times this has happened to me – not cancer thankfully, but I’ve gone on vacation and by day 2 or 3, I’ve had a case of the sniffles or a sore throat. 

I never understood why this was so – and now I do.

But, something has changed. This past week when I was away, I didn’t get sick at all. Not once did I feel ill.

And, it’s because I’m slowly changing how I live my day-to-day life at home and as a result, I don’t get sick on the road.

I am careful about not “running on adrenaline”. When I’m stressed I take time to feel my feelings and then process them.  For me, skipping straight to processing is a source of stress. I have finally given myself the permission to feel sad, mad, boiling anger, repulsed, hurt and injured. I don’t dwell there, but I give myself a reasonable amount of time with these feelings. Many people don’t like the idea of ‘timing’ their feelings, but I know what’s best for me and I know how much time I’ll need…I know the difference in myself when I’m feeling my feelings versus wallowing in self pity. I’m famous for telling my friends, “I’m going to allow myself to feel like this for the next 24 hours/week/over the weekend and then I’m going to do what I need to do to move on and get over it.” 

I also have reaffirmed my vow that I will never do anything I don’t want to do.  Sure, there are some things that I don’t LIKE doing, but I don’t do anything I don’t WANT to do. Ever. Does that make me a bit spoiled? Maybe, but I work hard, I’m a good person and I deserve to do only things that bring me joy. In this way, I am not regretful or mournful about how I spend my time – because it’s a choice.

I’ve bumped up my supplementation. I take B-complex for stress, vitamin C to boost my immunity and kapha tea to balance my energy.

I’m also getting out more, engaging in different stimulating activities, reading fiction (as opposed to self-help or non-fiction only) and meditating.

And, while on the road, I bump up the number of hours of sleep I get (pretty hard to do!), I eat salads and veggies whenever I can, I don’t indulge in “airport food” and instead carry raw nuts, dried fruit and water and I make sure to see the sights at least once (this means walking!)

All these things make life more sweet and less stressed for me. Taking that trip has helped me to see that I *am* taking better care of myself. It’s a journey for sure and I’m not where I want to be, but that just means there’s still more to learn!

#1 Video on YouTube – Hilarious!

Nov 6th, 2007

The video below is currently the#1 video being played on You Tube. It’s hilarious. Comedian demonstrates the evolution of dance.

These videos of human robots are awesome too!

And for the body builders out there . . .

Breaking a Bad Habit

Nov 4th, 2007

If I still smoked, I’d use a technique I just became aware of. Here’s the gist of it:

Do you have a habit that you’d like to break?

I recently had dinner with one of the most talented doctors I’ve ever known. He has incredible success getting people to give up old, destructive habits – regardless of how many times they’ve tried and failed.

He has an impressive track record with smokers. The general success rate – no matter which smoking program you’re talking about – is between 20% and 30%. But he’s able to get over 50% of smokers to quit within 4 weeks.

So how does he better the odds?

His technique is simple. You put your conscious mind between your thoughts and your habit. Here’s how it works: When the desire for a cigarette strikes, you put 30 seconds between that desire and the act of lighting up.

During those 30 seconds, you stop and think about why you’re smoking and why you want to stop. Then you smoke your cigarette.

This works for several reasons. First, it breaks the chain of acting without thinking. Second, it allows you to develop and reinforce the feeling of why you want to quit. Over time, the desire to break the habit becomes the dominant motivating force and the ritual is broken.

My friend tells me that within 4 weeks, over half his patients give up their habits. You can use this technique on your own and get the same results.

Al Sears, MD

The Great American Smokeout – Thur, Nov. 15

Nov 1st, 2007