11/09/2008 by Tina.

(Excerpt from a small brochure found lying around in a tray at work)

“In many ways the body is like a car, requiring precisely the correct quantity and mixture of fuel to maximise and maintain its efficiency. And, just like a car, our bodies need optimum fuel in order to function efficiently without premature deterioration. As an example, the difference between petrol and diesel is only a few carbon atoms, but try to run your petrol driven car on diesel and you will soon see the difference a few atoms can make. Of course, our diet is extremely varied but, without the correct core ingredients, our “engine” would fail as assuredly as that of the car.

The body is capable of a continual rebuilding and maintenance cycle, but to perform these tasks it requires a diet containing all the essential raw materials. Every day the human body manufactures and replaces 50 million new skin cells, and in a normal week the whole intestinal mucous system will have been replaced. These processes are taking place every minute of every day throughout our lives. Red blood cells have to be renewed once every four months. This is a mammoth task when you consider that just one teaspoon of blood contains about 15 million red blood cells and the human body contains approximately 5 litres of blood. If a diet does not contain the necessary raw materials, or if their value has been diminished due to interaction with free radicals, each of these new blood cells will be damaged and less able to fulfil its role as the body’s transport system.

Under normal circumstances, all mammals have two cycles of cell replacement. The first is the anabolic stage during which the body grows and develops almost automatically. The human cycle for this is approximately 25 years. The second stage is the catabolic stage, during which th body starts to break down those functions it no longer requires. If  not exercised muscle is replaced with fat, physical inactivity results in our bones losing both calcium and their strength, and mental activity slows down if mental facilities are not maintained.”

So the message clearly is: feed it well, and use it or lose it! As amazing as our bodies are, they still need to be looked after.

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12/08/2008 by Tina.

The weather in England is wet and miserable, so it must be summer time! It rained so hard this morning that the drains turned to fountains and the roads to rivers.

Am I bothered though - NO! I’m off to France at the end of the week where days and days of sunshine are forecast. As are many glasses of wine

We need sunshine to make vitamin D, which is of vital importance because:

“…cancers grow most rapidly in people who have insufficient vitamin D. In April this year, Professor Giovannucci and colleagues reported the results of a major study of more than 4,000 cancers occurring in 47,800 men, known as the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. He found that the men with the highest vitamin D index had a 17 per cent reduction in cancer, compared with the men who had the lowest vitamin D index - and they had an even greater reduction in deaths from cancer (29 per cent), showing that high vitamin D is associated with longer survival after diagnosis of the disease.

Doctors knowledgeable about vitamin D believe that it may be effective in treating cancer because laboratory work backs up the survey findings. Vitamin D is active in more than 30 different tissues of the body, where it induces cells to complete their development and enables cells that have developed wrongly to die off instead of forming a tumour.” (As reported in the Independent, August 2006)

In order for there to be sufficient vitamin D making rays, the sun’s UV index needs to be 3 or higher, which unfortunately for much of the year it isn’t. In temperate climates such as that of the UK it only reaches these levels in the spring and summer, and if today’s weather is anything to go by, sometimes not even then!

The body can store vitamin D for short periods of time (30-60 days) but as most of its production comes from UV light, it means we need to “make hay while the sun shines”, get out of our stuffy offices and houses and out into the rays. Fifteen minutes of unprotected sunbathing at least twice a week is sufficient, so there’s no need to bake yourself. And of course if you plan on staying out longer, Slip, Slop, Slap is the order of the day.

So, no prizes for guessing what I’ll be doing in France - I can hear my sunbed calling to me already. Oh, but all in the name of good health of course

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06/08/2008 by Tina.

I have just read one of the most harrowing books. Thankfully it was a work of fiction rather than fact - “The Face of Death” by Cody Mc Fadyen (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Face-Death-Cody-Mcfadyen/dp/0340840102?&camp=2486&linkCode=wsw&tag=edesfieunl-21&creative=8922). Well worth a read if you’re into crime thrillers!

Not the sort of topic I usually write about, preferring to intend my energy toward more positive things, but there was one sentence that struck me as being appropriate:

“…scars are more than reminders of past wounds. They are evidence of healing.”

Scar tissue is a sign that it got better, that it mended - that the wound has closed. It’s a reminder of the incredible healing power of the human body and how much better that we see scars that way than to dwell on the pain that caused them. Especially as our thoughts create our reality!

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01/08/2008 by Tina.

It’s mid afternoon and I long for a siesta. My eyes are drooping and I simply can’t be bothered to do anything. So I thought I’d pick up the book laying nearby, plump for a page and write something about whatever it is I find. And hey presto, it’s about how light levels affect the release of melatonin (the sleep hormone).

It seems in the summer the illumination level is 113,284 lux, in winter it drops to 58,895 lux. At dusk the level has drastically reduced to 8,200 lux, although just 1000 lux is sufficient to suppress melatonin levels in the same way as daylight . In an office environment (which is where I am right now) the light level is a mere 500-750 lux, i.e. NOT enough to stop melatonin telling my body to feel sleepy! No wonder I need a snooze

Guess I’ll go and stick my head outside, catch myself a few lux before I start catching a few zzzzzzz’s.

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29/07/2008 by Tina.

Sometimes when you notice the same thing cropping up again and again in different places you just have to look into it. Which is how I came across the Hawaiian healing system Ho’oponopono. There are many good and informative sites on this, not least of all www.hooponopono.org (the official site for Self I-dentity which is a self-healing form of the system) if you’re interested in learning more.

The healing work done in this system takes the form of cleaning toxic memories from our lives (both current and karmic) with the help of the divinity (call it the source, love God, whatever your preference) so we can return to a state of oneness with it. There are several techniques for doing this, the most widely known being the mantra, “I love you, I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you”, but it seems hot chocolate is another:

“Drinking hot chocolate releases error memories in the subconscious that put gain first as opposed to doing something because it is divinely correct to do. Drinking hot chocolate release error memories that cause violence in relationships, smoothing things out so that relatinships are not about gain but about love.”

Bring on the Cadburys! I know many women who would be only too happy to undertake this kind of therapy work.

There is a serious side to Ho’oponopono of course, and I have to say in the few days I have been practising I have noticed a significant difference in the way I feel. Once I have learnt all I can I will add a page to www.edensfields.co.uk/diyhealing so others can benefit from it too.

In the meantime, I wonder if room temperature Dairy Box counts as hot chocolate…..?

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23/07/2008 by Tina.

What a buzz and a fantastic start to the the day!

A couple of colleagues and I have just saved the lives of a mother duck and her 8 ducklings who were very foolishly attempting to cross the road in front of a bus, amid shouts of “orange sauce” from a less than sympathetic passer by. And how cute they were as they struggled to get their tiny bodies up the kerb and waddled off, oblivious to the smiling faces they left in their wake.

Not wanting to lose that feel good factor I anchored it NLP style so I can bring it back any time I like. It’ll also come in handy when dealing with negative feelings and collapsing anchors associated with them. You can learn more about this technique and other NLP patterns from  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Introducing-Neuro-Linguistic-Programming-Joseph-OConnor/dp/1855383446?&camp=2486&linkCode=wsw&tag=edesfieunl-21&creative=8922

 Quack, quack, quack….

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21/07/2008 by Tina.

Did you know that apparently a child laughs on average 300 times a day whereas adults only manage a meager 15 times?

The health benefits of laughter are well known, but a surprising thing that people might not be aware of is that the increased levels of immunity gained from a good old rib tickling, git busting laugh, last for up to 12 hours! So not only is it fun at the time, but the feel good factor keeps on going.

Which is all well and good if you feel like laughing, but what about when you don’t? I keep a supply of funny emails which I can trot out whenever I’m feeling down, and no matter how bad it seems, they always make me giggle. In fact I’ve just looked through them again and laughed ’til I cried, so that’s my immune system fired up until teatime

Here’s some of the funnies - hope you get 12 hours worth out of them too:

Letters to the editor 

The government tells us that we are eating too many pies and dying of heart disease, then in the next breath they’re telling us we are living too long and there’ll be no more pension money left for us. I wish they’d make their bloody minds up.

John

—————

‘Alton Towers - Where the magic never ends’, or so the commercial says.  Imagine my disappointment when it closed at 7.30.

Colum Hill

—————

I am married to a Taiwanese lady, and people often ask me if she was a mail-order bride. I find this very insensitive. The Royal Mail lose around
2 million letters and parcels each year, and to suggest that I would trust the delivery of my wife to them is insulting in the extreme. She was sent by DHL next day delivery.

L Palmer, London
———-

The government says that there are nearly 50,000 people with HIV in Britain , a third of whom do not even know that they have it. Is it just me, or is it a bit harsh that the government know and haven’t told the poor sods?

John Campbell, e-mail

—————

What’s all this nonsense about that 66-year-old Romanian woman being the world’s oldest mum? My mum’s 77. Beat that. Thomas J

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11/07/2008 by Tina.

I keep this picture in my work space to remind me that there are many ways to look at things. Just like the classic half empty/half full argument - it’s all about how you see it.

Science tells us (and my personal experience backs it up) that thinking positively has a good effect on our health. The film “Patch Adams” is based on the real life doctor of the same name who introduced fun and laugher to hospital wards knowing that happy people got better quicker. Conversely of course thinking negatively will have a bad effect on health.

A large study called “The Immune System - Influence of Aging, Psychosocial Factors and Physical Activity” found that when healthy people continually thought negative thoughts (known as rumination) the number of blood cells that fight infection were reduced. This effect was much greater in older people and those who were already ill.

So let’s start seeing the glass as half full; seeing things in a more positive light. This is called reframing.

I’ve often been accused of being anal or too particular because I like to have things right and just so. This may frustrate my more laid back family (who think I’m weird), but is a positive boon when it comes to locating that one tiny little error on a spreadsheet that stops all the sums from adding up which no one else can spot. And for that same behaviour, my colleagues just love me!

 So I’ve decided I’m not (the very negative sounding!) “picky” - I’m THOROUGH. And that’s what I’m sticking with

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08/07/2008 by Tina.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUmO-ELaR_o

Above is a link to one of the most inspiring songs I’ve ever heard - I’ve been EFT tapping to this for years and it never ceases to make me feel good. These are the lyrics:

It’s been a long road
Getting from there to here
It’s been a long time
But my time is finally near.And I will see my dream come to life at last
I will touch the sky
And they’re not going to hold me down no more
No they’re not going to change my mindCause I’ve got faith of the heart
I’m going where my heart will take me
I’ve got faith to believe
That I can do anything

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07/07/2008 by Tina.

They say in order to write a good CV you should explain any gaps in your work history, so maybe parenthood should be included. After all, it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done and I learnt more from being a mother than from any job I’ve had or course I’ve been on!

Might look a little like this (for mother please also read father as this applies to them too):

Job title: Mother

Date (from/to): 1986 - death

Employer’s name and address: Masters Aary, Ben & Tom - Home

Hours: 12.00am - 12.00pm

Main duties: Nurse maid, cook, confidante, launderer, bank, taxi driver, cleaner, bed maker, medication dispenser, counsellor, referree, juggler, teacher, crutch, bottomless pit of money and patience….

Isn’t it a shame when all those valuable skills are not recognised and are lumped together as being “just a mother”, as if that is something less than even the most menial of jobs. And often it’s us mothers who are the worst offenders for demoting ourselves - “I’m just a mother”; “I’m only a housewife”; and the corker “Oh I don’t work, I’m just at home with the kids”! Don’t work? Give me a full time job any day - at least by law you get a lunch break and annual leave!!

So no “just” or “only” about it really. Maybe it’s time to stop using those words and stand up and be counted for what we are and what skills we possess.

Might even put parenthood on my CV……..

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