Upbeat Living: Beat Acidosis to Beat Illness and Feel Great!

Tags

Acidosis, beating fatigue, breath, Eating, Eating right, energy, exhaustion, fatigue, Feeling energized, Health, pH balance, stress, Stress Management, tired, UpBeat Living

© 2014  Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved.

Microsoft

The Upbeat Living philosophy is to encourage people to switch little habits that will lead to big results, to feel our best and enjoy life the most. And little changes often can help you have a lot more energy, plus feeling and looking younger!  Would you consider making one or two easy changes in your daily habits, if you could feel much better as a result?

Here are some points to ponder regarding a condition affecting many people and causing silently deteriorating health, yet which you can easily and inexpensively control. It’s called acidosis, meaning excess acid in the body’s fluids.  Stress, eating habits, lack of exercise, and too little sleep all contribute to this condition.  And dealing with stress, changing your eating habits, exercising, and sleeping more—these can all help correct the condition.

Relative acidity is measured on the pH, or potential hydrogen, scale that indicates hydrogen  ion concentration. The pH scale goes from 1 (extremely acidic) to 14 (extremely basic, or alkaline). The body operates best when its acid balance, or pH, is between 7.35 and 7.45, ideally at 7.4. Yet diet and stress tend to acidify the body’s fluids. More biochemical waste in the body can also lower pH, making the body more acidic.  To see some beautiful graphics of the pH scale, put “pH scale” in your search bar and enjoy.

While the condition is simple, the symptoms are many. A person with acidosis may experience frequent fatigue, allergies, bronchitis, colds and flu, foot fungus, acne, boils, eczema, age spots, arthritis, diarrhea and/or constipation. Effects less easy for the individual to see are serious internal processes, such as the inflammation of veins, arteries, and the muscle tissue of the heart. This creates cardiac system issues that result in elevated blood pressure, which in turn increases heart deterioration.

Fotolia

Acidosis also leads to premature aging via accelerating free-radical damage to cells. Cells are actually poisoned by inefficiently eliminated cell waste. An acidic pH prevents the proper storage and release of cellular energy, meaning that the body cannot respond fully to stress or infection.  This means you’re tired! Red blood cells clump together, which limits their oxygen-carrying capacity and leads to fatigue and weakness. Cancer cells thrive in lower-oxygen  (acidic) environments such as acidosis can create. Other mechanisms caused by acidosis may lead to pancreatic dysfunction, diabetes, weight gain, and osteoporosis.

The body has natural mechanisms for monitoring and controlling its acid-base balance. When plasma is too acidic, the respiratory system speeds breathing, and the kidneys can produce substances that turn the pH around. The body also uses intracellular absorption of hydrogen atoms by molecules of protein, phosphate, and carbonate in bone, thus raising the pH to less acidity.

So what can you do to help yourself beat acidosis? First, get litmus paper from your pharmacy and test your saliva. The litmus paper will turn color to show the acidity of your saliva. If your saliva’s pH is too low/acidic, re-assess your current stress, exercise (or lack thereof), sleep, and diet. Consider these dietary changes:

1. Stop drinking any sodas or sugared drinks, or any artificially sweetened products. Switch to juices or filtered water.
2. Stop eating sugared desserts and foods made mainly with white flour and yeast, such as pizza and bagels.
3. Eat dark-green leafy salads, other green vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, celery, parsley), and root vegetables (carrots, yams, daikon radish).
4. Eat fruits, especially fresh fruits, such as apples, apricots, bananas, cantaloupe, dates, figs, grapefruit, peaches, and grapes. For dried fruit, try raisins.
5. Eat rice and buckwheat, almonds, dairy products, and eggs.

Try changing your diet for a week, and add exercise and sleep more. Check your pH again. Notice if these changes make you more relaxed, clear-minded, and vital. If so, you are making a major investment in your long-term health. Why not feel your best, starting now?  That’s Upbeat Living!

_____________________________________________________________

 

● Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert.  She is the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), plus the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition (http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc).  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister.

● Liked this article?  You can buy Kebba’s books:  just click the links!

• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). 
• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition) (http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc)             

● Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

● Please comment!

● Get these articles by email– just click the Subscribe Free option in the right column.

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UpBeat Living: Instant Energy With Invisible Yoga

Tags

Discover The Secret Energized You, Energizing, energy, fatigue, instant energy, Instant Yoga, invisible yoga, Kebba Buckley Button, namaste, tired, trading stress for energy, UpBeat Living, Yoga

© 2014 Kebba Buckley Button.   World Rights Reserved.

© vadymvdrobot – Fotolia

Hands up, anyone who feels tired right now!  Oh yes.  Hands up, anyone who is routinely more tired than they want to be!  Oh yes.  By the way, you look like you’re tired.  Just kidding.  Some of you are wearing makeup, and it keeps you from looking so tired.   Not having the energy you want is a pervasive condition many have been plagued with.  There are many causes. We have fatigue from sleep disorders, including from breathing errors during sleep.  We have fatigue from stress overload or from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), overlapping with fatigue due to bad dreams.  We have fatigue from eating too much sugar, fatigue from eating foods containing microtoxins, fatigue from air pollution, and fatigue from drinking too little water.  We have Chronic Fatigue Immune Deficiency Syndrome (CFIDS).  Substituting coffee for sleep can work for a while, then make us deeply fatigued.  There are many more causes for being too tired.   Tired people may have trouble concentrating, may ache all over, and may be cranky.  Their reflexes are impaired, slowing down their thinking and actions.  They may make be unproductive and make mistakes that result in losses at work.  They may cause accidents while driving and hurt relationships at home.  They get sick more easily.

What are you willing to do for the life you say you want?

~ Kebba Buckley Button

In contrast, we feel great when we have lots of energy.  Vitality is a magic ingredient that can completely turn around attitudes, productivity, and relationships.  There are many ways to trade in stress and fatigue for energized living.  In my book, Discover The Secret Energized You, there are hundreds of understandings, tips and tricks for literally trading in your stress for energy.  These are all part of the Upbeat Living system.   But what if you need some instant energy, you don’t have time to read, and you’ve had enough coffee for the day?  Some yoga, that doesn’t even look like yoga, can help.  I call this “invisible yoga”.  Everyone has seen regular yoga:  it looks like stretches and breath techniques.  However, here are 2 powerful techniques you can do in almost any situation, no one will notice, and you will increase your vitality within two minutes.  Do either Instant Yoga Energizer for just one minute, if that’s all you have before your meeting starts.

After all, life is your grand experiment!  What tools will you use?

How far will you go and how high will you rise?  It depends on you.

~ Kebba Buckley Button

Instant Yoga Energizer #1:  Find a spot where you can see a clock or your smartphone’s clock. Notice the time.  Now think of stretching as you roll your shoulders slowly, gently, “stretchingly” for 2 full minutes.  Roll them in the same direction and then in opposite directions.  Notice that your head seems to be down and forward compared to the refreshed shoulders.  Gently bring your head up and back, until it is centered over your shoulders.  Repeat.  Now notice the energy has reached your toes and the balls of your feet.  Notice the lightness in your head.  That is the improved circulation of blood and oxygen in and to your brain.  Now you can think clearly again.  Notice your vitality is up.  Enjoy!   Instant Yoga Energizer #2:  Seated, become aware of your fatigue and how your body is positioned.  Where is your fatigue?  If your shoulders are, for example, off to the left of your body’s center, gently glide them back to center.  If your head is down and forward, gently move it back to being upright and centered between your shoulders.  Now become aware of your breath.  How shallow or deep is it?  Begin to exhale out to the end of your breath.  Push the last bit of air out of your lungs and allow the reflexive inhale, or gasp.  The inhale will automatically fill your lungs completely, replacing the urban pollutant-filled air you just pushed out.  This is a complete breath, the exhale plus the inhale.  Do this twice more.  Notice the light sensation at the back of your head, plus the warming of your ankles and neck.   Congratulations!  You have just had your first Invisible Yoga Class.  Namaste!  Use these techniques often, and enjoy the effects.  After all, it’s your energy and your life.  Why be tired?

________________________________________________________

    ● Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert.  She is the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), plus the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition (http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc).  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister.

● Liked this article?  You can buy Kebba’s books:  just click the links!

• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). 
• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition) (http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc)             

● Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

● Please comment!

● Get these articles by email– just click the Subscribe Free option in the right column.

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

UpBeat Living: Stop Feeding Your Fatigue! Part 3

Tags

energy, exhausted, fatigue, Feeling energized, stress, Stress Management, The life you want, tired, vitality

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Observe Your Starting Point

Stretching Boundaries
Photo by iStock.com

So what have you created with your life experimentation up to this moment? How do you feel right now? The following is a simple way to observe what fatigue and stress you have brought in with you. Get out your pen now and start making notes as you observe yourself.

First, place a hand next to your neck, palm down. Now drop the hand to your shoulder top. You should now be at the bend that joins your neck and shoulder top. This is the first place stress lodges in the body for many people, and tightness here can control your fatigue.

How tight or loose are your shoulder muscles? Do they feel more like pudding or concrete? Privately note your stress level and assign it a score on a scale of zero (“slug” or “sandbag”) to ten (“totally tight, tired and exhausted” or “poster person for espresso extreme”). Check both sides and note your score. Many of you will notice that one shoulder-top is noticeably tighter than the other. What you are measuring, at a general level, is hypermyotonia, the excessive tightness of muscle tissue due to stress. Congratulations! You have just conducted a Stress Self-Assessment! Make a note of the score you gave each shoulder and how many years old you feel. No cheating! This Stress Self-Assessment is only for you.

Gently lean your head down toward your left shoulder, then slowly raise it. Repeat to the right. Normal range-of-motion is more than halfway. Some people can stretch their head all the way to their shoulder-top. If you can’t go at least halfway without straining, you have neck muscle stiffness or were possibly in an accident in the past. Make a note of how far you can lean toward each shoulder.

Now try leaning your head slowly forward, back, “northwest,” “northeast,” “southwest,” and “southeast.” Are you as flexible as you expected to be?

Does any part of your body hurt? Does it hurt regularly? Does any part of your body not work as well as it once did, other than due to injury? Does your intuition suggest that deep stress may be responsible? Or has your doctor told you directly that stress has played a role in your discomforts?

You may wish to write out a list of what you observe and consider setting goals to relax your muscles, to get back flexibility, and to investigate possible health improvements. What do you think the greatest health possibilities are for you? Would you be willing to be pleasantly surprised?

Update your notes whenever you have a new observation.  It’s your life!

———————————————

● Kebba Buckley Button is a corporate stress management trainer and the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You, and the 2012 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core.  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister.

● Your comments are welcome!

● Get these articles by email– just click the Subscribe Free option in the right column.

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

UpBeat Living: Stop Feeding Your Fatigue! Part 1

Tags

at choice, change, choices, Effective living, exhaustion, fatigue, living beyond, stress, Stress Management, The life you want, tired, vitality, Your body's rules

Photo by Microsoft

 

 

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

In this series, you will learn what actually causes fatigue. More importantly, you will learn how to stop causing your own fatigue. If situations or relationships tire you out, you can use new strategies to stop getting tired and worn. If you feel tired after eating or drinking, you can switch to taking in food and drink that is energizing for you. Through understanding and changing your choices, you can truly stop feeding, increasing, and recreating your own fatigue.

Get Ready for Change

 

Welcome to your personal course in discovering your true self, The Secret Energized You^sm! You’ll notice that I use words differently, or use new words, to get people to take a fresh look at how life works. I present ideas and methods called LifeTools, throughout these articles. These are not just nice ideas. They are techniques and processes for you to use to rework areas of your life where you want to discover more energy, vitality, connection, success, joy, and transcendence. You can use LifeTools to solve negative conditions and to create positive energy. Life is an experiment! The Universe is your laboratory. What you get in life is the result of the way you have been experimenting and the tools you have been using. What tools will you use in your experiment? You must change your choices to change your results.

 

You must change
your choices to
change your results.

There is a cultural idea in modern life that you can talk about a problem until you are exhausted, or your counseling budget is, and the problem will somehow go away. Actually, talking endlessly about a challenge will often magnify it. Some say, “What you resist persists”. You may even overwork the problem mentally and get “paralysis by analysis”. You may say, “I just want to survive this difficult time!” But I want much more for you. I want you to understand problems differently and then do things differently. I want you to thrive, not just survive. I want new results for you. I want you to fully discover The Secret Energized You.

Aim to thrive,
not just survive.

In live presentations, I often say, “I don’t want much from you today—I just want to completely change your life!” If you read these articles and use the LifeTools, you will find profound changes in your energy and the joyful dynamism of your life. Welcome to your fresh new approach to creating and fully living the life you want!

———————————————

● Kebba Buckley Button is a corporate stress management trainer and the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You, and the 2012 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core.  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister.

● Your comments are welcome!

● Get these articles by email– just click the Subscribe Free option in the right column.

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

UpBeat Living: Food and Drink for Desert Summer Thriving, Part 1

Tags

antioxidants, at choice, choices, Eating, Effective living, energy, energy foods, exhausted, Feeling energized, food, Health, Kebba, Recipes, Summer, tired

© 2012 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Can you enjoy life and feel energized during the desert summer, even when it’s 110 degrees outside?  Absolutely!  And the right foods and beverages can keep you feeling fabulous.

When it’s hot out, you may often come home feeling drained.  You may crave sweet drinks, alcoholic drinks, and high-carb quick-fix meals.  However, if you each fresh produce and drink naturally energizing beverages, you’ll be surprised how much more you can do in your evening and the next day.  You will also be surprised at how clear your mind is, and how easy it is to be enthusiastic, since you feel better.  Try it!

Green Moteajo (“Mo-TEA-ho”)  Makes 2.

This is a nonalcoholic and energizing takeoff on the mojito.  Do eat the mint sprigs.

3 green tea bags

Filtered water (chlorine removed)

In microwave, heat 1 ¼ c water for 3 ½ minutes on high.  It should be bubbling slightly.  Steep all 3 tea bags for 8 minutes.  It’s better if you cut the teabags open and put the cut tea in a metal tea ball, then steep.

With 2 tall glasses, place in each:

8 ice cubes

½ c steeped green tea

6 oz/ ¾ c organic ginger ale

1 oz coconut syrup (optional) or coconut juice

1-2 8” springs of fresh mint

Stir slightly and serve.

 

Apple Limeonut (LIME-oh-nut) LuLu  Makes 2.

Organic apple juice

Coconut juice

1 large lime

Ice cubes

With 2 tall glasses, place in each:

8 ice cubes

6 oz/ ¾ c apple juice

4 oz/ ½ c coconut juice

½ lime, cut in wedges and each half-squeezed

Stir slightly and serve.

 

 

Secret-Energy Salad  For 2

5-6 oz organic baby romaine lettuce, baby Italian mix, or similar dark greens.  Organic spring mix is OK, but the flavor is different.  Favorite brands are Earthbound Farms and Private Selection organic.

Use sharp kitchen shears to cut up the greens to bit-size.  Divide into 2 salad bowls.  Toss with Secret-Energy Dressing.

Secret-Energy Dressing  For 2

2/3 cucumber, chopped

2 T olive oil

1 t each:  fresh, minced oregano, parsley, and mint

2 t apple cider vinegar

1 t fresh lime juice

Pinch sea salt

20 twists citrus pepper

In a mini-processor or small blender, blend until smooth.

Now layer on each salad artistically:

1 c chopped jicama

1 c chilled, boiled organic potato cubes (try a circle around the

bowl rim)

4 oz sliced pan-broiled chicken (recipe follows), or pan-broiled salmon, or chick peas (drained).  Arrange these across

the center.

8 organic cherry tomatoes (around rim, reserving 1 for center)

Sprinkle each salad with 2 T boiled egg sprinkles (pressed thru sieve) or 2 T shredded parmesan cheese.  Put that last tomato in the center.  Mix the drinks and serve!

 ________________________________________________________________

● Your comments are welcome!

 

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

UpBeat Living: Instant Yoga, Instant Energy

Tags

energy, exhausted, fatigue, Feeling energized, Instant Yoga, stress, tired, Yoga

© 2012 Kebba Buckley Button, M.S., O.M.  World Rights Reserved.

Hands up, anyone who feels tired right now!  Oh yes.  Hands up, anyone who is routinely more tired than they want to be!  Oh yes.  By the way, you look like you’re tired.  Just kidding.  Some of you are wearing makeup, and it keeps you from looking so tired.

Not having the energy you want is a pervasive condition many have been noticing in recent years.  We have fatigue from sleep disorders including from breathing errors during sleep.  We have fatigue from stress overload or from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, overlapping with fatigue due to bad dreams.  We have fatigue from eating too much sugar, fatigue from eating foods containing microtoxins, fatigue from air pollution, and fatigue from drinking too little water.  We have Chronic Fatigue Immune Deficiency Syndrome (CFIDS).  Substituting coffee for sleep can work for a while, then make us deeply fatigued.  There are many more causes for being too tired.

Tired people may have trouble concentrating, may ache all over, and may be cranky.  Their reflexes are impaired, slowing down their thinking and actions.  They may make be unproductive and make mistakes that result in losses at work.  They may cause accidents while driving and hurt relationships at home.  They get sick more easily.

In contrast, we feel great when we have lots of energy.  Vitality is a magic ingredient that can completely turn around attitudes, productivity, and relationships.  There are many ways to trade in stress and fatigue for energized living.  In the 2009 book, “Discover The Secret Energized You”, this writer provides hundreds of understandings, tips and tricks for literally trading in your stress for energy.

But what if you need some instant energy, you don’t have time to read, and you’ve had enough coffee for the day?  Some basic yoga, that doesn’t even look like yoga, can help.  This is called “invisible yoga”.  Everyone has seen regular yoga:  it looks like stretches and breath techniques.  Here are 2 subtle-looking yet powerful techniques you can do in almost any situation, no one will notice, and you will increase your vitality within two minutes.  Do either Instant Yoga Energizer for just one minute, if that’s all you have before your meeting starts.

Instant Yoga Energizer #1:  Find a spot where you can see a clock or your smartphone’s clock. Notice the time.  Now think of stretching as you roll your shoulders slowly, gently, “stretchingly” for 2 full minutes.  Roll them in the same direction and then in opposite directions.  Notice that your head seems to be down and forward compared to the refreshed shoulders.  Gently bring your head up and back, until it is centered over your shoulders.  Repeat.  Now notice the energy has reached your toes and the balls of your feet.  Notice the lightness in your head.  That is the improved circulation of blood and oxygen in and to your brain.  Enjoy!

Instant Yoga Energizer #2:  Seated, become aware of your fatigue and how your body is positioned.  Where is your fatigue?  If your shoulders are, for example, off to the left of your body’s center, gently glide them back to center.  If your head is down and forward, gently move it back to being upright and centered between your shoulders.  Now become aware of your breath.  How shallow or deep is it?  Begin to exhale out to the end of your breath.  Push the last bit of air out of your lungs and allow the reflexive inhale, or gasp.  The inhale will automatically fill your lungs completely, replacing the urban pollutant-filled air you just pushed out.  This is a complete breath, the exhale plus the inhale.  Do this twice more.  Notice the light sensation at the back of your head, plus the warming of your ankles and neck.

Congratulations!  You have just had your first Invisible Yoga Class.  Namaste!  Use these techniques often, and enjoy the effects.  After all, it’s your energy and your life.  Why be tired?

________________________________________________________

●  Your comments welcome!

 

●  Reach the writer at Kebba@kebba.com

UpBeat Living: Staying Energized When It’s Over 100°

Tags

Eating, energy, energy foods, heat, Summer, tired, vitality

© Kebba Buckley Button 2010.  World rights reserved.

Last time, I covered the basics of thriving in the desert heat.  Your body needs to get out of the heat, your skin needs extra protection, and you need to get enough sleep and general rest.  This time, I share strategies for staying upbeat and energized, thriving rather than just surviving when the weather is searing.  Mall shopping is obvious, but what if you don’t want to shop?

1.  Use the cool hours to leverage your energy for the day. Run errands before noon and after dark.  Play tennis at 10 pm.  Phoenix City parks are open until 11 pm.  Try moonlight hikes, such as the Sierra Club’s monthly full moon hikes.  Schedule runs, picnics and day hikes at breakfast time, as close to daybreak as you can. The air will be 30 degrees cooler than later in the day, and you can be active and even enjoy it.  Also, do your yard work or gardening at sunrise, while it’s cool.  Plan other outdoor activities according to when your yard, or the activity area, will be in shadow.  Sun-sensitive walkers can use the hallways at malls as early as 7 am.  Arrange your activities like this, and you may be surprised at how much better you feel all day.

2.  Try a change of location. Go to a town or campsite at a higher elevation, to a lake or to a coast, and take a cool climate break for a day or three or longer.  This will give your metabolism, your brain, and your emotions a time-out.  You’ll get a fresh start on your return.

3.  Keep your attitude and activities fresh. The most damaging aspect of the desert heat, for some, is the tendency for the brain cells to bake until they don’t work well.  With heat stress, you can lose your concentration quickly, then your attitude, and then your enthusiasm for anything at all.  Filled with heat-blahs, you can make mistakes with people and actually damage relationships.  So resolve that you’ll stay as positive and perky as you possibly can.  Please, don’t get sucked into conversations about how hot it is!  This will increase your sensation of being hot.  Ignore the comments or say something cheery like, “Yes, it’s almost like Phoenix in the summertime!”  Then talk about fun things you have been doing.

Novelty will help you stay alert and enthusiastic about life.  Do things differently.  Have you been to all your local art museums and galleries?  Round up a group to go to the local ice skating rink.  Take a summer foods cooking class (see #4).  Try swimming lessons. Go to any desert resort for day use (usually under $20) of the pools, cabanas, drink and snack service.  Go to summer concerts and plays in locales like Sedona and Laguna Beach.  Go to any ski town, ride the ski lift, and take photos. Visit Santa Fe on Labor Day weekend for the Arts Festival; you’ll need your down vest after sunset.

4.  Eat cooling foods. This is not necessarily the same as cold or icy foods.  In fact, many foods we think of as cold and therefore refreshing are actually dehydrating and/or weakening.  Sugar is dehydrating, so limit your sweetened teas, sugary “vitamin drinks”, milkshakes, coffee drinks with syrups, and frozen desserts.  Skip the diet drinks, also, because most artificial sweeteners cause ill effects.  Instead, drink lots of water and some fruit juices. Energizing yet cooling foods that are easily stocked in your frig include:  broiled chicken or salmon, hard-boiled eggs, corn on the cob, green peas (thaw, don’t cook), pre-washed greens, canned organic garbanzo beans (“chick peas”), avocados, celery sticks, jicama sticks, carrots, and fresh fruits.  Learn to make smoothies out of fresh fruit, juice, and favorite dairy or nut milks; the newer blenders are easy to use and clean.  Make your own salad dressings in the blender, using a half cucumber or a tomato as the base for an herbed vinaigrette.  For dessert, would you like to experience something novel?  Try making something like Raw Coconut Soup (such as this recipe:  http://2raw.wordpress.com/raw-creamy-thai-coconut-soup/).  Raw foods give you far more energy than cooked or previously frozen foods.

So this summer, when others are melting and moaning, you can feel wonderful and have all the energy you want.  Use these techniques to rise to any occasion as the temperatures soar.  Feel cool yet vibrant, and this will be your best desert summer ever—so far!

Reach the writer at: Kebba@DiscoverTheSecretEnergizedYou.com .

UpBeat Living: Top Tips for Natural Allergy Relief

Tags

allergies, allergy, allergy relief, energy, fulfilled, Health, natural allergy relief, stress, tired, vitality

© Kebba Buckley Button 2010.  World Rights Reserved

Pollens from Spring blossoms are making eyes watery and itchy.  People are sniffling, sinuses are clogged or runny, and some people have headaches or feel ill.  Not fun!  If antihistamines and antileukotrienes are not for you, then try these quick natural helps.

1.  Check your spice cabinet for ginger powder.  Mix ½ teaspoon ginger powder into a cup of warm, filtered (chlorine-removed) water.  Stir and drink.  Feel your symptoms improving in minutes.  Yes, fresh ginger root, grated and pressed through cheesecloth or a tea filter, is wonderful.  But when you are feeling bad, and you want immediate improvement, just add the ginger powder to your water.  The ginger is very yang, and it will balance out the yin symptoms of hay fever.

2.  Change your home’s air filter to one that has many accordion-type folds across its width.  Look for one that says it filters allergens.  This means it catches the tiniest pollens, which can be the most irritating.  Research has proven that this type of filter removes almost all of the provocative particles, so spend the extra $8 for this type.  Your improved sleep at night and your increased productivity during the day will be worth much more than that.

3.  Get a silent ionic air filter for the area where you work or relax the most.  This will remove even more allergens, again increasing the quality of your sleep, your productivity, and your recreation.

4.  Look around and honestly evaluate the dust/pollen catching quotient of your home.  Wearing a well-fitted dust mask or a kerchief over your nose and mouth, clear the paper stacks and dust the collectibles, using a slightly damp cloth.  Soap-wash the cloth often.  If you can, pay someone without allergies to do this clearing.  All those books should be dusted and go into cabinets, and the live plants should go out or to someone else’s house.  Replace those with silk plants or fragrance-free cut flowers, and commit to damp-wiping the silks and their vases regularly.  Use a high-efficiency or water-tank vacuum cleaner to sweep your carpets, or steam clean them every March and September.

5.  If the roof of your mouth is prickly, try drinking freshly squeezed orange juice.

6.  For allergenic fatigue together with sinus symptoms, try quick-acting natural stir-ins for your filtered (chlorine-removed) water.  Two widely available products are Emergen-C and Airborne.  Emergen-C is Vitamin C, as mineral ascorbates, plus B complex and special nutritive components for different conditions.  Airborne contains vitamins, minerals, and herbs.  Both products are effervescent and absorb easily in the body.  Try different flavors and varieties, to see which work best for you.  Add ½ teaspoon ginger powder to increase the decongestive effect.

7.  Place the palms of your hands to the sides of your neck and gently rock across the sore muscles.  Notice how tight your shoulder tops are, and gently stretch your shoulders in every direction for 2 minutes.  Notice your congestion calming and your head feeling less heavy.

8.  Have everyone leave their shoes by the front door, to avoid bringing pollens inside.  Have a non-allergic person brush the dog outside, before it comes in from play.

9.  Want more?  Mix 1 teaspoon of salt in 1 pint of warm water and breathe it in through your nostrils.  This rinses the sinuses.  Buy a neti pot if you like.  Notice you have fewer sinus symptoms and rarely get colds!

Set yourself up for success, with these shifts in your environment, nutrition, and habits.  Remember how bad you felt yesterday?  Now exhale completely and enjoy this beautiful Spring!

_____________________________________________________

Reach the writer at Kebba@Kebba.com

UpBeat Living: Save Your Stale-O-Meter(sm) with Microshift, Part 2

Tags

choices, energy, Fear, Feeling energized, fulfilled, happy, stress, tired, unstuck, vitality

(c) Kebba Buckley Button 2010.  World Rights Reserved.

We’ve been talking about feeling stale vs. getting refreshed.  Your brain, your metabolism, and your soul all need to be recharged sometimes.  Microshift, or very small change, can be delightful and give you a great re-set.  Do you want to experiment with refreshing your brain? How bored, stuck, or stale do you feel right now? Pick your own scale, such as the “Stale-o-meter,” where “ten” is feeling completely stale, bored, stagnant, or flat and “zero” is feeling totally vital, refreshed, stimulated, inspired, and generally excited with life. On the scale you’ve picked, write down your self-score for your current state. Now offer your mind some microshift as you consider some of the new phenomena in different aspects of life:

1. The Smithsonian Institute, once only a site to visit in Washington, D.C., now has Culturefest programs around the country. The Smithsonian Associates now take cultural and scientific treasures on tour with speakers and concert presentations.
2. There is now a science of fragrance and flavor generation. The City Museum of Stockholm recently had a British scientist create a “disgusting” odor for an exhibit on ancient medicines featuring mummification. In British nursing homes, a fragrance called “granny’s kitchen” and one called “coal fire” are used therapeutically to assist elderly dementia patients.
3. In Florida and the Caribbean, after recent hurricanes, there have been ecosystem shifts. These have resulted in a population explosion for the spadefoot toad, with many millions of baby spadefoot toadlets now hopping around the landscape.
4. In the world of wine, the next oenophile horizon is Geneva—yes, Geneva, Switzerland. While only 1% of the annual wine output of Switzerland gets exported, a target market has recently been found in Brussels, since Belgium is too cold for growing grapes.
5. In Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, the temperature often gets to 130 degrees Fahrenheit. An indoor Alpine-skiing facility has been built, attached to a major shopping mall, by an international team.
6. The newest “green” textiles are made from bamboo. Not only can you buy bamboo flooring, you can now purchase pillows and fashions made from bamboo fiber.

So, now how is your Stale-o-meter self-score? I hope that, after looking at novel information, it is noticeably lower. This is “microshift,” tiny changes created with little time, effort, or cost. What would happen if you actually did something different today? Call an old friend, try a new friend, visit a new restaurant, or order a different dish. See a movie someone else picked. Plan a vacation or conference trip. Just thinking out the details will refresh your mind, whether or not you actually go.

Join a special interest organization. Clean out a closet and take the extras to a charity. Visit a new church or local meetings of a political party. Go to a lecture, an art opening, or a student concert. Volunteer to serve at a soup kitchen, to work in a food bank, or to deliver senior lunches. Inquire about having your dog trained as a therapy dog. Offer a course at a senior center or community college. Invite a few people over to watch a provocative film, fiction or documentary. Thinking about this list, has your Stale-o-meter score shifted? Are you perhaps feeling more energized?

If not, consider changing your input sources and settings. Novelty stimulates. Try Microshift for Uplift^sm, daily for seven days, and check your Stale-o-meter again. If you’re enjoying yourself so much that you forget to note your Stale-o-meter score, it’s definitely working. We need shift, and we can make shift happen. The quality of your life depends on you. Why not choose the greatest quality now?

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Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com.

UpBeat Living: Save Your Stale-O-Meter(sm) with Microshift, Part 1

Tags

energy foods, Feeling energized, fulfilled, happy, recharge, refresh, stuck, tired, unstuck, uplift

(c) 2010 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

In music, the “upbeat” creates uplift in each measure. A key part of my mission is to draw attention to the “Up Beat” of life, the positive areas and potentials of lifestyle. If you have been feeling the need for a bit of uplift, read on.

Have things seemed a bit flat lately? I have long taught the naturalness of change. All processes result in change, in shift. Many say, “Shift happens.” Others say, “We make shift happen.” I say, “Microshift creates uplift.”

Much has been written about change and how people tend to fear large-scale change. However, some small forms of change delight us. When our baby learns a new sound or motor skill, we feel a rush of joy. We may burst out laughing and call someone in from the next room to share the delight. A cool, rainy day can make us smile after years of drought and months of heat. A “change of scene” can refresh us as we take a vacation after months of nonstop work and local routine. New information can cause inspiration. Just the intake of new ideas can change the way we view people, life, and the world. Some microshift is caused by our choices and actions, and some is included in our thoughts through observation.

To get refreshed by action, why not take a 2-hour microvacation?  Turn off every device and take a walk, a walk in a park, a small hike, or a jog through the upper level of a mall.  Take a single yoga class or paint a canvas.  Visit your local homestore, get new plants, and repot your container garden around your front door.  Get and mount new house numbers.  Bake a favorite treat with no specific occasion.  At night, take a star guide out and identify some constellations.  Visit a new house of worship or go to a single evening workshop at a new church/spiritual growth center.  Reverse 2 pieces of furniture and replace 2 throw pillows in the same room.  Call a friend you haven’t talked with since s/he moved out of state.  Set a timer and be determined to take an entire 2 hours for your microvacation.  You’ll feel great, your mind and soul will be refreshed, and you’ll want another microvacation soon!  Schedule it!

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Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com.