Going Barefoot

The natural way

Have you ever been really tired at the end of a long day and then feeling better when removing your shoes?

Shoes trap energy around the feet and that could be one of the reasons for feeling tired.

So take your shoes off whenever you can and give your feet as much air as possible.

Walking barefoot helps tone the muscles of your feet, keeping them young and strong. An early morning barefoot walk on cool, dewy grass is refreshing and invigorating for the entire system, not just your feet. It is also believed to have a very good effect on improving eyesight.

Do walk barefoot as much as possible.

How to Eat Healthy

 

We are what we eat.

Cut down your consumption of red meat to reduce the chance of heart disease; and if you do eat red meat make sure it is lean and cooked by a healthy method, such as grilling.

Eat fish at least three times a week. It is a good source of protein and the oily varieties give us essential fatty acids. 

Eat at least five portions of vegetables, salads and fruit a day. One portion is an average size fruit like an orange, an apple, a pear, etc. A small glass of juice, about ⅔ cup, is a portion, but restrict juice to one glass a day. A small bowl of salad greens, tomatoes, cucumber, celery, etc. is a portion, or two tablespoons of vegetables such as peas, beans, spinach, sprouts or cauliflower. The more fruits and vegetables you eat the better.

Restrict excess fat in your diet, particularly saturated animal fats from meat and dairy products. Resist spreading butter too thickly on your bread and piling it on your vegetables. In some cooking, oil can take the place of butter. Try adding olive oil to your mashed potatoes and enjoy the flavour. Lower-fat cheeses are available, or stick to the normal ones and reduce the amount you eat. The same applies to yoghurt and cream. Low-fat and skim milk are sensible options because they are lower in fat but still contain all the valuable nutrients of full-fat milk. 

Hidden fat is the greatest enemy in prepared foods like cakes and snacks. Try to avoid these foods if possible, or read the label and try to choose lower-fat alternatives. Remember, though, that a low-fat diet is only a healthy option for those aged 5 and over - below this age a child needs easily accessible energy.

Eat more whole-grain cereals. Instead of white bread, eat whole-wheat and multigrain varieties and change to a high fibre breakfast cereal or granola. Try whole-grain pastas and brown rice.

Drink at least 8 glasses of water per day. You will feel healthier and your body will benefit. Limit tea and coffee because they contain caffeine, a stimulant that will keep your body in overdrive. 

Always taste food at the table before you add extra salt. Restrict salt in cooked dishes and try to cook vegetables without salt in the water. Too much salt can lead to high blood pressure.

Remember, eating healthily will not stop you getting some diseases but it will affect how your body deals with them. A healthy diet will help you have a healthy life.

Danie de Villiers - Freelance Writer

What are Free Radicals and Antioxidants?

As the body’s cells use oxygen to produce energy, some highly unstable molecules known as free radicals are produced.

These are molecules or atoms with missing electrons. These molecules rush around grabbing electrons from other molecules to stabilize themselves, in the process creating new free radicals. An electron-grabbing chain reaction starts that damages tissues and contributes to ageing and degenerative disease.

The good guys who put a stop to this are the antioxidants, among which are vitamins E, C and beta carotene. They seek out the free radicals and inactive them - becoming inactive themselves in the process. This is why a regular supply of antioxidants is needed, and the best way of ensuring this to eat a natural unrefined plant food diet.

Danie De Villiers - Freelance Writer

Getting Quick Energy

The combination of food eating habits, regular exercise, and self-motivation is the best way to generate quick energy whenever you need it.  

There are moments when all of us feel the need for energy. Unfortunately, there are no magic potions available though there are some high-energy foods (like chocolates of crisps) and stimulants (like tea or coffee) that can give you a temporary lift. But getting quick energy depends on maintaining how to summon up the energy stored inside it. 

Good Eating habits 

Though most of us eat more than enough for our energy needs, we do not always eat in the most efficient way for generating energy. Irregular of unbalanced eating patterns make it hard to tap our energy resources when we need them. 

You should therefore try to eat three meals daily of roughly equal energy value, avoiding hard-to digest, rich, stodgy or fried foods. Some people prefer a bigger breakfast, others eat four or five small meals, with their content healthy and nutritious; you should be constantly supplied with energy. 

If your energy does flag, make yourself a high-protein drink from tomato juice, fruit juice or buttermilk by adding wheat germ or Brewer’s yeast, both high in energy-giving vitamin B. Natural yoghurt and non-fat dried milk are also good energy boosters, either on their own or mixed with fresh fruit, juices, and wheat germ or Brewer’s yeast.

 

Regular Physical Exercise

 Keeping your body in peak physical condition makes energy self-generating. A good keep-fit routine in the morning –even if it means 10 minutes of simple exercise like touching your toes and running on the spot – will limber you up and get your circulation going.

In the evening, after work, you should try harder exercises such as jogging of swimming. Doing these on a regular basis will bring your body into better condition and increase your ability to generate quick energy.  

If, during the day, your energy level falls, you can make it rise again in a number of ways, take a brisk walk or do some keep fit exercises during your lunch hour. 

Self-motivation

Energy has a psychological as well as physical aspect. If you feel enough motivation to do something, you can generally do it if you summon up the necessary energy.  Therefore, when you have a task that requires a rapid release of energy, or when you feel yourself going limp, take a few moments to think about what must be done. Try to motivate yourself by reflecting on the tasks of importance, or thinking about how good you will feel about achieving your goal. Then get up …..and get on with it!

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Wise words on stress

Stress is to refuse to accept a circumstance in your life for which you have no control, stress is measure by the amount of energy that you invest resisting those circumstances. Stress is to waste energy attempting with your thoughts and feelings to change a person, an event, or a circumstance surrounding you. The trick to avoid stress is to realize that no amount of effort can ever change the circumstances while they are happening to you, no matter how bad, do not oppose the moment instead, accept and feel what is occurring.

Daniel

You and your self-esteem

What is self-esteem?

Self-Esteem is the way you look at and feel about yourself. It means to value something or someone, thinking and believing that that something or someone is of great importance.

If you are always fighting with yourself and feeding yourself thoughts that make you feel less valuable or not as important or attractive as other people, then you are suffering from Low Self-Esteem. Unfortunately, most people suffer from this, but the good news is, you can kick low self-esteem out of your life, inviting and living a high self-esteem instead. You might have even tried giving your self-esteem a boost, but were later disappointed to see that it did not quite work out the way you imagined.

Like every other person, you have probably adapted and grown to believe that feeling insecure and feeling that you are not good enough is normal and impossible to beat; therefore you just accept it and set an subconscious rule that you need to and deserve to feel badly and poorly when you look at yourself.

The thing about low self-esteem is, that is cannot be cured in one day, or even soon for that matter. When working on achieving high self-esteem, know that it can never and will never be achieved as long as you keep negative ingredients involved, such as giving up.

What does matter and needs to be realized is that you have chosen to stay in negativity for so long, that you have become so comfortable with the fact that you do not like yourself. t, that you now crave and need to feel sorry for yourself and subconsciously enjoy victimizing yourself and grabbing negative attention from others.

Look in the mirror and tell yourself that you do not feel sorry for yourself anymore and that you have the power and strength to feel and be happy, confident, and successful, and you will do it because you are valuable and deserve it, just as anyone else would.

So do not be afraid to face yourself, and every time you do look at yourself and observe the things that go on around you, take notes of the positive things and the things you do like and admire about yourself. You might have even tried giving your self-esteem a boost, but were later disappointed to see that it did not quite work out the way you imagined.

Like every other person, you have probably adapted and grown to believe that feeling insecure and feeling that you are not good enough is normal and impossible to beat; therefore you just accept it and set an subconscious rule that you need to and deserve to feel badly and poorly when you look at yourself.

The thing about low self-esteem is, that is cannot be cured in one day, or even soon for that matter.

When you do come to times where you are not satisfied with the way you look or the things you have done, shift your mind and soul over to a positive side, pointing out the things you are happy with and feel great about, and always reward yourself for it.

Lastly, make your presence appear only around other positive people and other positive energies.

Maintaining a healthy and high self-esteem will be successful if you continue to motivate and encourage it. 

Daniel

Manage your anger

Everyone must allow himself or herself to feel and be angry. Never suppress anger. Suppressed anger can lead to pathological expressions, or the anger can turn inward, causing sickness or depression. Learn to identify and express your feelings sooner rather than later.

Know yourself and what triggers anger in you. From there, set yourself boundaries and manage your anger within those boundaries. Know when to stop.

Work out deep wounds that may come from the past, and what other emotions are tied in, and why. We cannot change the past, but we can change how we feel about it.

With anger also comes forgiveness. We must learn to forgive. By doing so we will have extra energy that we can use more productively, like loving someone. Forgiveness does not mean you condone the behaviour that wounded you, it means let bygones be bygones. Make a list of people you are angry at. Decide on a positive course of action now.

Learn relaxation through meditation, prayer, or visualisation.

Change the way you think. You will be overly dramatic when angry. Allow yourself time to let your rational self-take over. Logic defeats anger.

Remember that everyone who is engaged in hate is hurting deeply; and as you give, you will receive.

Lastly, but not the least, learn to count to 10!

The joy of dancing

Dance has been described as a non verbal communication. It is a body language that expresses itself without having said anything. Belle dance, break dance, hip hop or ballroom dance whatever the form all are a way of expressing different emotions and at the same time a good source of entertainment. Dance is an excellent way of conveying your feelings as well as letting out all the emotions buried inside you. It is a good exercise for the body. It keeps your body flexible and fit. Dance is good both for the body and the brain. So why not dance when it is advantageous.

Couples should always indulge into some kind of dance as it is important for them. Dancing for couples is a first-class way to be together, enjoy each others company and at the same time a good technique for exercising. In this busy world couples hardly find time to enjoy each others company especially when it is no more new and fresh. As the time passes by and a relationship grows old the responsibilities grow and couples very comfortable in the company of each other. They let things go as they are, prefer the normal routine of going to work, returning home, eating and going off to sleep with little or no other activity. This kind of routine makes a relationship dreary and desolate since there is no excitement. Dancing is a good option to make a relationship enjoyable.

How to dance when you really don’t know it? Well not a big deal. You do not have to be a perfect dancer. Get some dance videos and practice those steps. Try following the easier steps and once you get them you won’t need the videos. This is because you get into the rhythm and your body becomes flexible and as such you are able to get your own dance steps. If you want to be a perfect dancer then you could join a dance school and become a perfect dancer. If you are not keen in becoming a perfect dancer you can still go for it to get excitement and entertainment in your life. You do not have to go to a dance club as you can create your own dance hall in your house. You do not need much space. Just shift some of the furniture in a corner and make sufficient space to dance. Dancing shoes are not required you can dance bare footed as it is your own house. Then put on some dance music and dance together. Dance in whichever form you feel like. If you feel romantic put on some light music and do the ball dance and if you loaded with to much of energy then go for some bubbly number and dance to the notes.

Dancing in such a manner makes your life thrilling and lively. You do not feel like one of those dull couples who feel that there is no charm left in their married life and are just dragging their life.