So what do we do? How can we kick box stress and manage it, instead of letting it kick us around and control our limited reserves? By harnessing our inner strengths through meditation.

Meditation as a form of healing and reducing stress isn’t new. It’s been used by several cultures around the world for thousands of years. Prayer is often considered a form of effective meditation.

How to Meditate

A good way to begin is to find a comfortably lit and quiet area of our house, sit cross-legged on the floor or on a mat, close your eyes, and evenly temper your breathing. The slow exhaling and inhaling movements puts you in touch with your body; it compels you to pay attention to the energy flowing in and out of your body with every breath. Indeed, focusing on breathing is one of the oldest, and most widely practiced methods of “entering” a meditative state.

Basic Types of Meditation

There are two very popular forms of meditation, described below.

• concentrative meditation – focuses on breathing. People who do yoga and practice meditation regularly believe that the way we breathe mirrors our physical well-being. Quick, short and uneven breathing is a reflection of a harried, stressed lifestyle. Deliberate, long and deep breathing means our minds are focused and calm.

• mindfulness meditation – involves developing awareness of our feelings, emotions, sentiments, images and thoughts without necessarily thinking about them. We just allow them to pass through our senses, the way water flows through a stream or brook.

Under these two broad categories fall different types of meditation. Here are just a few of them:

 simple meditation (sitting quietly in a room with no distractions, choosing a word or mantra like “love” “peace” and saying it over and over again, as we breathe deeply and slowly)

 walking meditation (concentrating on our feet firmly pressed to the ground, a good way to relieve stress because it involves the act of walking and not thinking of anything else)

 transcendental meditation (using a mantra that you’re not supposed to divulge to anyone, you devote about 20 minutes once or twice a day repeating the mantra only. This is supposed to connect you to the “oneness” of the universe.

Which Type is Best?

No single type of meditation favors the reduction of stress; meditating itself is a stress-coping mechanism whether you like the mind-centered/heart centered approach or the transcendental version.

Setting aside 15-20 minutes once or twice a day just for yourself, enclosed in a quite area with or without soft music, saying your mantra over and over again and focusing on slow, deep and deliberate breathing – these are the ideal ingredients of good and effective meditation.

Cardio exercise uses large muscle movement over a sustained period of time keeping your heart rate to at least 50% of its maximum level. To obtain your Target Heart Rate check out our calculator at www.healtstatus.com – calculators – Target Heart Rate. Sample cardio workouts would be walking, running, bike riding, and swimming, rowing and aerobic workouts. Workouts should cause moderate sweating. If you can’t finish a sentence while doing your workout you are going at it too hard. If you are having no trouble talking step it up. You need a minimum of 20 minutes of continued elevated pulse to get the best results at least 3 times a week. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends 30 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity most days of the week. Cardio exercises will burn fat. Weight loss comes from burning more calories than you take in. Even when you see no specific weight loss you are getting great benefits from a cardio workout. Benefits: Weight Loss Stronger Heart and Lungs Increased Bone Density Reduces Stress Better Sleep More Energy Reduces the Risk of Heart Disease Teaches the Heart to Work More Efficiently Strengthens Heart & Lungs Increased Energy Levels for a More Active Lifestyle Reduction in Mood Swings & Depression In order to feel good now and in the future you need cardio exercise. It will not create 6 pack abs or tone problem areas but it will make your body more efficient in your day to day living.

Unfortunately, Irritable bowel syndrome is not considered a disease in many medical circles, but it’s certainly an annoying source of embarrassment for those who suffer from it. Also called spastic colon, nervous bowel, mucous colitis, or functional bowel disorder, IBS affects one in five Americans

Symptoms of IBS

Irritable bowel syndrome is diagnosed when these symptoms are present (although bear in mind that other diseases or conditions mimic the same symptoms):

• Abdominal pain / cramps
• Bloating
• Gas
• Loose bowel movement / constipation – some people could have both
• Mucus in the stool

Although not life-threatening, seeing a doctor is still encouraged so that he/she rules out other more disabling diseases, such as ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s diseases, or even colon cancer. The doctor may want to prescribe medication so that you don’t suffer from chronic diarrhea, which can dehydrate you.

Causes

The causes of IBS are not established. It seems to occur when muscles in the intestinal wall contract and relax while they transport food from the stomach to the rectum. These contracting and relaxing movements are supposed to function smoothly, but the muscles contract and relax either too slowly or too rapidly. As a result, when food is forced through the intestines more quickly, gas, diarrhea and bloating occur.

Certain foods can also aggravate IBS symptoms, and medical researchers have discovered that chocolate, milk and alcohol play a role in making symptoms.

Avoid Stress

Stress triggers IBS. In fact, experts agree that IBS is closely linked to feelings of uncertainty, tension, anxiety and depression. This is explained by the fact that cerebral nerve pathways control the colon; stress, therefore, can stimulate abnormal movements in the colon.

Living with IBS

Fortunately, thanks to some growing attention paid to IBS, individuals now have self-help tools to enable them to cope with this ailment. Most of these coping skills involve making changes to diet and lifestyle. Here are a few suggestions from the Mayo Clinic:

• increase intake of fiber – do this gradually, because too much fiber all of a sudden can induce cramps and diarrhea. Sources of fiber include: beans, whole grain cereals, oats, bran, apples, mangoes

• stay away from problem foods – if you find that eating chocolate and drinking coffee and alcohol make your symptoms worse, avoid them altogether, or reduce the amounts you take

• eat at regular times – don’t skip meals and then binge later in the day. Small but frequent meals are best

• exercise regularly – relieves depression, stress, and promotes normal contractions of the colon

Remember: talk to your doctor about your symptoms and discomforts, and together you can isolate the triggers for your IBS. Don’t be embarrassed to talk about this subject (as some men tend to be). It’s a serious problem, and a very common one. The more open you are with your health care professional, the more treatment options there are to choose from.

Our bodies need energy to breathe, move, and pump blood; energy just to keep all of our organs and systems functioning. We also need energy to complete all of the activities required of us in a day; make the bed, go to work, walk the dog, weed the garden, and chase the kids. We acquire energy from food. The average person needs about 2000 calories per day. In order to get a more accurate picture of the calories or energy units you need to get through a day go to the calculator on our web site for the Daily Calorie Expenditure. You will find it at www.healstatus.com – calculators – Daily Calorie Expenditure. Our calculator will give you specific calorie requirements by taking into account your height, weight, age and activity level. If you burn MORE calories than your body needs you will lose weight. If you burn FEWER calories than your body needs you will gain weight. If you burn the SAME number of calories than your body needs you will maintain your weight. It takes 3500 calories to gain a pound of fat. Fat is the body’s way of storing energy to use when you run out of energy at a later date. If you want to lose 1 pound of fat than you need to take in 3500 fewer calories than your body needs whether it is by exercising or eating less. Check out our calculator that lists over 100 activities and the calories each activity will burn, www.healthstatus.com – calculators – Calories Burned. When looking at weight, calories are simply units of energy that explain energy needed, energy used and energy stored. When examining the complexity of our bodies we also need to consider nutrition not all foods are as beneficial for helping our body to function at its best. But that is a topic for a future article.