The Harmful Effects of Negative Emotions

This morning on the news, I heard a segment about how our negative emotions can cause us to have diseases and bad health. It makes total sense to me. When I am feeling negative feelings like anger, resentment, jealousy, envy, or frustration, I feel bad not only mentally, but physically.




I have to do a commute three to four days a week on a road that goes up and over a mountain. This highway is mostly two lanes that wind and curve on what can be a very dangerous road. Many people are fearful of driving this road and drive it too slow, or there is always the dare devil on it that passes people on blind curves.



I will inevitably have to deal with these two types when I am on my commute. I have now gotten to a place where I do not burst into "road rage" all the way there. I realized that when I would get angry or frustrated with these drivers that I was the only one who suffered. My blood pressure would rise, my heart rate would raise, my adrenaline would rush, my whole body would tense up, and I would feel tingling in my arms.



All of this because some driver would irritate me with their bad driving. Even though I was yelling ugly things to them, they did not hear me, or even notice that I was in this state. I was the only one that was being upset and disturbed. I was hurting myself with my own emotions. Now when I begin to fall into my own trap of being upset, I immediately feel my body respond with this negative emotion, and I take a breath and calm myself down. Those are the kind of negative feelings and emotions that can bring on a illness.




I have written before about how good emotions like love, compassion, kindness, can help keep you healthy and actually help heal you, and how bad emotions like anger, hate, resentment, can make you sick and cause illness. Being aware of how your body feels is a great barometer for keeping yourself in check. If you feel that physical stress like muscle tension, adrenaline, or high blood pressure, you need to re-think what it is you are feeling and expressing.



I know people who hold grudges forever, or invest their time in hating something or someone. Learn to let things go, it will be much healthier for you to do so.




I was talking to a friend today about her mother who is one of those people that holds onto things forever. Her mother was angered that her brother married a much younger woman thirty-three years ago, and had not spoken to him since. He died last week....what a waste.





She missed out on her relationship with her brother, because she disagreed with a choice that he had made for himself. She would rather have been right about her ideals than to enjoy being a part of her brothers life. Tragic. By the way this woman lives much of her life this way, and has had colon cancer and other health issues.





There is a lot of evidence out there to show how we sabotage our health with our own emotions. This is where you can practice your mindfulness. Be aware of what you are thinking and feeling. Do you feel good, or do you feel bad? Pay attention to this so that you can change any negative thinking or emotion to a better feeling thought and emotion.





Remember that your negative thoughts and actions only hurt you. The party that you are thwarting your anger at is usually oblivious to it anyway, unless you confront someone to their face, and that is not healthy most of the time either. Stopping and calming yourself down, and taking a breath before you react to any situation is a better idea.



So make sure that you are not making yourself ill and sick by negative thoughts and emotions. Get your ego out of it, and think of how you can help yourself with a more positive thought process and reaction. Being angry, hateful, vengeful, mean, or envious, will never give you a good outcome. Switching to compassion, kindness, understanding, and love, will!




Till Tomorrow,
Queenie

The Power of Vegetables

You know me and how I love to tell you to eat your vegetables....well here I go again. Each time I do research on vegetables and their health benefits, I am amazed at how powerful they are for helping to keep us healthy and disease free.



I recently began reading a great book called, "The Gerson Therapy". Max Gerson M.D. was born in 1881 and died in 1959. During his life Dr. Gerson created a therapy that healed many people from cancer, diabetes, tuberculosis, and other life threatening illness's. In this healing therapy, vegetables play a very big role.



In our fresh vegetables are healing nutrients such as, enzymes, antioxidants, fiber, minerals, and much more. They keep us healthy, and can help us when we are sick. Vegetables have always taken such a bad rap. I never understood that because I have always loved them from back when I was a child. I never had to be told to "eat your vegetables", I loved having seconds.




Vegetables are light, clean, and tasty. They are good raw, lightly cooked, and for maximum power drink them as a juice. The Gerson Therapy supports juicing. That is where you will get intense amount of enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and other good stuff.




Another great thing about vegetables is that they have no fat, and hardly any calories. It is what you put on your vegetables that can get you fat like, butter, mayonnaise, cheese, and sour cream. Vegies are great with a little "Bragg's Amino Acids", which is a little like a soy sauce without the sodium content. Or lightly cooked with a bit of lemon and dash of salt. There are many ways to make vegetables yummy and filling without adding too many calories.






Many of our health agencies in our country recommend that we eat five to nine servings a day of fruits and vegetables. A serving is around a half of a cup. It sounds like a lot, but it really isn't. You can have a big salad that has four or five different vegetables in it like cucumber, broccoli, lettuce, carrots, radish's, and add in tomato, and you have almost eaten you daily amount.




Snacking on raw vegetables is a great way to satisfy your hunger and keep yourself healthy. You will also benefit from getting all of the enzymes and antioxidants that can be weakened and lost by cooking your vegies.




So if you have not been eating your daily amount of vegetables....get to it! You will look better, feel better, and be healthier for it.




Till Tomorrow,
Queenie

More On Meditation

Today I was with a clients son who is nine years old, working with him on how to meditate. He had never heard of meditation, but was very willing to listen to what it was.



As I began to explain what meditation is, that it helps one to relax, get centered, de-stress, and find a place of peace, he seemed to find it interesting. At one point he got up and said, "You know when I need to get away from life, I go into my bedroom and pull the covers over my head and then I feel better."






I told him that in a way he was sort of doing a type of meditation. He was removing himself from a stressful situation and finding a place that he could feel better. Isn't it interesting that a nine year old feels the need to get away from life, but I can guarantee you that many children younger than that feel the same way, but do not have an understanding of how to feel better when they feel stressed or upset.




When I was young, I would go for a walk into a field of sweet-pea flowers and sit in the middle of them to feel better. Or I would walk to a creek bed near my home to sit and ponder all my troubles. I did not know about meditation, but could have used it so much of my childhood to help me through those moments of feeling confused, lost, and alone.



Remember that the Dalai Lama says that if we taught every child at the age of five and under to meditate each day, we could have world peace in just a couple of generations from now. That is just extraordinary. Our children are our hope for a peaceful world, if only we could teach them how to meditate.






I love working with kids. They get "it" so much more than adults who can be cynical and calloused from life's experiences. Kids just understand that they can go within if you tell them they can. It is a wonderful thing to watch and be a part of.



When I am working with children about meditation, I teach them first to go to a happy place in their mind. Somewhere that they remember being blissful and happy. I have them think of this place, feel it, smell it, and be there in their minds. They can feel the shift in them selves when they are meditating on their happy place, and feel the feelings of what it was like to actually be there.





I tell them that this is a great tool to help them feel better if they are upset, angry, or worried. I also teach them how to meditate with white light pouring down into the top of their head, all the way down to the tips of their toes. This light is warm, healing, and comforting. They can imagine it filling them up with feelings that help them to feel better.




I wish I could work with kids exclusively, for they are so important to our worlds future. They are the worlds future, and our world needs a lot more kindness, love, and compassion. These little souls could be the ones who create a world of non violence, and love, if we would only teach them how to take care of themselves through meditation, proper exercise, healthy nutrition, and respect for others.


I have hope that I can be at the very least a small part of this change in our young ones. I will feel blessed and fortunate to do so. If you have children around you, engage them in a little meditation, you will be helping the world if you do. I hope you can.



Till Monday,
Queenie

A Reminder of Why We Need Muscle

I wanted to remind you one more time about the importance of building muscle. There are so many important reasons to develop muscle in your body besides just looking better. Muscle is one of the things that can keep you younger and leaner for your entire life.



Without muscle you would not be able to do any body movement. With muscle you have numerous pluses to your health and self image. You will not only look better, be stronger, stay leaner, you will also age slower than you would with a lower muscle percentage.



Muscle will boost our metabolism. The more muscle you build, the more calories you will burn, even during your resting ours. As we age our metabolism slows, and building muscle can help to reverse this process.




Exercise that creates muscle will also build stronger bones. This is important for females as our bones get weak as we get older. Lifting weights or doing other types of strength training will help build bone density as well as build muscle.




There are five places on our Earth that are called Blue Zones. They each have groups of people who live in these places; Sardinia Italy, Okinawa Japan, Loma Linda California, Costa Rica, and Ikaria Greece, that live into their 100's without disease or medications. One of the things that they have in common, among others, is that they do muscle building tasks until they die. It is their muscle that helps to keep them younger and healthier.



When you continue to build muscle in your life you will be younger and healthier for it. It will also assist you in looking great. Toned arms, legs, gluts, and abdominals, always look better. As I have said before, women do not build big muscles easily, so you do not have to worry about getting big. Unless you have an over abundance of testosterone, you will have to work very hard at getting big muscle's.




Weight training, Palates, and resistance training, are all great ways to create muscle. Eating protein to support this process is crucial. Without protein, building muscle won't happen. It is protein that supports building muscle, and keeping it.



I hope you have been doing your strength training program at least three days a week. If you want to look good, feel good, and stay healthy and young.....build muscle!



Till Tomorrow,
Queenie

Inspirational Quotes

I love reading "quotes" from people who have left a powerful mark upon this world. There is great wisdom and knowledge left for us to ponder in by these unique individuals.



Today I am going to let you read some of these quotes that will make you think. We can always learn from the experience and lives of others.


"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, You are a leader." John Quincy Adams


"He who has never learned to obey, can never be a good commander." Aristotle


"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy." Martin Luther King, Jr.


"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined." Henry David Thoreau



"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." Eleanor Roosevelt


"Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing." Helen Keller




"Most of the shadows of this life are caused by or standing in our own sunshine." Ralph Waldo Emerson



"The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook." William James




"A wise man learns from the mistakes of others, a fool by his own." Latin proverb.


"A loving heart is the truest wisdom." Charles Dickens



"When one door of happiness closes, another one opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us." Helen Keller




"The only journey is the journey within." Rainer Maria Rilke




"Insist on yourself. Never imitate." Ralph Waldo Emerson


"If we all did the things we were capable of, we would astound ourselves." Thomas Edison


"Fear less, hope more, eat less, chew more, whine less, breathe more, talk less, say more, hate less, love more, and good things will be yours." Swedish proverb.



"Don't waste your time in doubts and fears; spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hours duties will be the best preparation for the hours and ages that follow it." Ralph Waldo Emerson


"Never let life's hardships disturb you...no one can avoid problems, not even saints or sages." Nichiren Daishonen


Those are just a few of many, many, wonderful quotes by very wise people. We can learn great things from them that can improve our lives on many levels. Take a moment and read them again, I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!


Till Tomorrow,
Queenie

The Art of Surrendering

Surrendering has always been a difficult thing for me, but recently I have found great peace in the process of learning to surrender.



Most of us have plans and goals for our lives, but most of us find that those plans and goals do not always match with what life has in store for us. Frustration and anger can be feelings that come up when our idea of what life should be, and the reality of what life is, are different. They usually are.



Looking back on my life I can see where I was not in alignment with my actions, and with what I wanted. Many times I have worked hard and diligent to make something happen, and it didn't. I have had my share of successes, and certainly have had my share of failures. It is in the failing that I have learned most of my life's lessons.



If I could go back and change something in my life, it would be to understand and practice the art of "surrender". I used to think that this meant giving up, but it does not mean that at all. It means to give up the fight and struggle that keeps us from inner peace, and it allows things to flow.



It also means to go with the flow, just like you would if you were floating down a river. It wouldn't make sense to turn your boat and paddle upstream in an effort that would get you no where, would it? That is the same thing we do when we keep fighting and struggling to make something happen, that just isn't going to. That is the time to surrender and let go.



I truly believe that if a situation is right for us it will have a flow to it. If it is not right, then most likely we will have continual struggle and frustration with it. If you push and push at something and it doesn't happen, surrender and let it go.




This does not mean that if we are attempting to do something and it doesn't happen with total ease, it is wrong. Most things that we work at take effort and hard work, but if you keep working hard and nothing works out over, and over, surrender to it and give it up.



Many times in the surrender of something, you allow the energy to flow and what ever it is that you are trying to make happen, may work out. I have experienced that many times in my life. Once I let go of something that I wanted so badly, it came with ease.




Have you ever known someone who was desperate for something? When it is about a relationship, that desperate energy actually pushes the person away, rather than it bringing them to you. In relationships, no one likes a desperate mate. It usually repels people when another person is desperate to have them.






We can be "desperate" to have many things happen in our lives. Relationships, money, careers, attention, friends, or anything that we desire can make us feel desperate if we don't have it. In that desperate feeling we are actually pushing our desire further away from us, rather than making it a reality.





It is in the "surrender" of the "outcome" of what we want that is important. Taking the action to make something happen in our lives is needed, but holding on with desperation to the outcome is where we go off track. Letting go of the outcome, surrendering to process, will bring you peace and will also help your life "flow". This is where you can have what you desire, by letting go of having it.




It sounds contrary to what you want, but it isn't. It is how energy works, and we are all about energy. So if you want things to work better and flow more smoothly in your life, learn to surrender and let go of the outcome. There is peace in it, I promise you that.



Till Tomorrow,
Queenie

The Miracle of Life

This past Saturday I had the honor of being a part of my friend Hildy's childbirth. She delivered a baby girl at exactly 12:58 on Fiesta weekend. The baby's name is Grace, and I could not think of a more appropriate name than that. It was definitely by the "Grace" of God, that she came into this world.



As I helped Hildy with her labor, which by the way was pretty calm and peaceful given the circumstance of delivery, I was in awe of this tiny little being coming into this world and into a new life's journey of her own.




As she came out of the warm and cozy womb she had lived in for nine months, she began to cry and wave her little arms around in this new open space. I couldn't help but think about how innocent and pure she was at this point. She was a soul that had not yet been influenced by any one's ideas, thoughts, or philosophy's. She was neutral in this new place.




What if she never heard anyone talk about the different color of peoples skin, or the difference in how people choose to believe about faith. What if no one ever told about the prejudice's and fears of how others choose to live. What if she never watched the news and never heard about all of the violence and hate that is so prevalent in our world.




If we could protect our children from these kind of things, the world would be a more peaceful place. These little baby's are blissful and unknowing of all the negative things that begin to distort their minds after they are born. Others begin to infiltrate their little minds with bigotry, fear, and hate, as it was done to them when they grew up.






If only these new little souls could be raised where compassion, kindness, and love, were the only things that filled them up. If only they were never told that "those people are bad because of the color of their skin, or that "they are scary because of the faith that they practice". If only.





The Dalai Lama says that if every child today at the age of five and under were taught to meditate each day, we would have world peace in just a couple of generations. That is a powerful thing. If only we could do that.





I am excited to see little "Gracie" when she gets home today. I am thrilled for Hildy and her new adventure into motherhood. It is an adventure that she has longed for for much of her life. I know she is going to be a wonderful mother.





I look forward to watching this little girl grow up and become her own little person, and if I get the chance to, I hope to teach her how to meditate! What a great thing to be a part of. Helping a little one learn how to connect and be in peace. That is exciting.





Till Tomorrow,
Queenie