How can we handle the information overload we are exposed to in the busy world of today?

The world I grew up in during the 1970-ties in the countryside was, in a sense, an easier world to navigate than the world today. I did not experience any pressure of having to look a certain way or to become incredibly successful. You were OK no matter how you looked or what you were wearing or what you wanted to become. The most common goal in life was to make it through high school and get a decent job to support yourself. Then you should meet a sweetheart at the local outdoor dance hall, get married and start a family. You’d then spend your summers in a caravan with your spouse and your kids and the circle of life can continue. The career advice given in the schools were practical and simple and usually did not encourage any other expectations of the future. This world was easy but limiting since you “knew” your choices and what was expected of you.

There were no mobile phones or computers. We had a “regular” telephone in our kitchen so I used to sit there in the evening after school, whispering with my best friend when the rest of the family was watching TV. My mother timed me to make sure I didn’t talk to long because of the phone bill. It felt like such a freedom when my parents bought an extension cord so we could use the phone in my mother’s sewing room and close the door as much as possible without damaging the cord. We had two TV channels and my father decided which one to watch so there was no room for dispute. On clear nights with good reception we could listen to Radio Luxemburg that sent the hottest new music in Europe. 

A few of us went out into the world as exchange students or as au pairs. We then returned after a year or more and most of us continued with the “get a job and start a family” future.  These adventurers were admired and could tell fascinating stories, invented or not, about their adventures in foreign lands and the ones that had stayed put would sigh and look dreamy for a moment.

The world is a different place today and both children and adults are bombarded with information and choices that didn’t exist in our minds when I grew up. The choices that are available today are fantastic and I feel a little envy when I think about the opportunities that are much easier to reach for young people today. You receive more information and it is easier to research and find opportunities yourself. You get to choose school and you are encouraged to get a University degree.

 You are supposed to be all you can be and live your dreams in a happy bliss. This is both fantastic and very stressful. What if you don’t know what you want? How do you choose from all the alternatives and possibilities? In the world today I see more pressure on young people, male and female, that you need to look a certain way and behave in a certain way. This world gives you more information and options but also commercial standards on how you are supposed to look, behave and on what to want for yourself. We have opened up the world but we are not educating our young ones or ourselves in how to handle all the information so the commercial pressures that play on weaknesses and insecurities set standards for those not strong enough to find their own way. This world gives less freedom to those that cannot say no to the pressures and expectations of the new standard goals. We cannot all look like Barbie or Ken and have 500+ friends on Facebook.  And even if you do, it doesn’t guarantee happiness.

The world tomorrow has hopefully matured and we are sharing and learning tools on how to navigate between all the choices and grow into loving, secure and responsible people. We need to give our children tools for finding their way and not just give them information, choices and ask them to make decisions they are not ready to make.  We are all bombarded with information using mobile phones, laptops and tablets. We are constantly entertained by movies, digital music, audio books and computer games and are fed commercials integrated in all media. We meet our sweethearts at online dating sites, discuss with friends in online communities, and make friends all over the world in online games and forums. 

This is all good stuff if we manage to keep a healthy distance to all the noise and find a quiet place within ourselves were we can charge our batteries and find our way. Meditation and to listen to your intuition should be taught from an early age as tools to quiet the noise and grow roots in real life so you can use the digital world to enhance your life instead of letting it rule you.

Create a Body Cancer Doesn't Like

Dr Lise Alschuler, a naturopathic doctor with board certification in naturopathic oncology, and Karolyn A. Gazella, the publisher of theNatural Medicine Journal, an innovative peer-reviewed medical journal for holistic-minded healthcare practitioners, started Five to Thrive®. Five to Thrive is a multi-media educational initiative that features an informational website, books, radio show, videos, social networks, and a digital magazine.  It promotes an integrative approach to cancer prevention and treatment that aim to positively transform the health of those affected by this disease. Their mission is to educate people about lifestyle-based, integrative, and scientifically sound health promotion strategies, and in this way create deeper and more widespread wellness.

The five strategies to thrive after cancer are:

Spirit - joy, hope, laughter, service, love

Being grateful stabilizes the chromozomes.  To truly feel grateful you need to work on your ability to be in the moment. Great tools to achieve this are meditation and the gratitude journal

Movement - strength training, aerobic activity, flexibility, proper timing, optimal hydration.

Exercise is a wonderful tool to stay healthy. Our bodies are meant to move. Most of us are spending a lot of time sitting and we need to change that. We need to take brakes and move by doing for example knee bends or just walk around. Number of hours watching TV is  a predictive factor for getting cancer. When muscles contract they release chemicals that regulate key bodily functions. They act as an antidote to insulin resistance and are anti inflammatory. If we don't exercise we don't get the benefit from these chemicals.

Diet - engage your senses, add more color, eat organic, eat whole foods, spice it up.

Plant based, non processed foods offer a risk reduction.  Mediterranean type diet with plants, lean protein, good quality oils, fruit at the end of the meal, minimal alcohol. Eating in a relaxed social setting is very beneficial. You need to take time to eat making it a possibility for having fun with family and friends.

Environment - personal care items, cleaning products, toxins, water filtration, air purification.

Use natural, organic personal care products and use organic cleaning products to reduce exposure to toxins. You can find tips on DIY alternatives for cleaning here, and for skin care here and here
Dietary supplements can be helpful since we don't usually get all the nutrition we need from our food since the soil is nutrient depleted. There are five supplement  categories:
Antioxidants, fish oil/fatty acids, vitamin D, flavenoides and probiotics.
But don't get the cheap synthetic vitamins! Then it is better to stick with good food.

Rejuvenation - rhytm, rest, relax, replenish, remediate.

Being healthy before diagnosis means that you will probably take treatment better.

"The Definitive Guide to Thriving After Cancer, a five step integrative plan to reduce the risk of recurrence and build lifelong health" is available at Amazon and Kindle.

Is it possible to welcome disappointment?

What if you could welcome disappointment! Then you don't have to fear not succeeding or not being perfect. You would be free from fearing disappointment in all situations and relationships. It would give you the freedom to experiment and dare to do things were fear of disappointment holds you back.

A person that that is okay with disappointment is unstoppable and free!

To cherish the bittersweet taste of endings

If for some reason you have left something, like a home, a job or a relationship either by choice, by somebody else’s choice or because of circumstances beyond your control, there will be good feelings and bad feelings associated with it to different degrees. Endings are never easy whether you wanted it or not. You may be weighed down with guilt for leaving someone or unsure if you did the right thing to leave your job and move to a new town.  Maybe you were fired for some reason or were diagnosed with a serious disease and are really having a hard time seeing how anything good can come out of it. 

If something has ended because of circumstances beyond your control you may feel like a victim being powerless. On the other hand, if you have created the change you may be feeling relief, possibly being a little nervous but happy and positive about the future.

There are two sides of everything and the other side of an ending is a beginning. When something ends there is room for something new to begin. If a job, relationship or way of life has ended, good or bad, the possibility for something new to enter your life has been created. Something new that may be better or just different, You have the opportunity to grow and to create something that makes you happy and fulfilled. You have the opportunity to stop and listen to your intuition. To let your intuition guide you to take control and create a future that makes you wake up each morning with a smile on your face. See each ending as an possibility for positive change, for improvement. A chance to change direction and learn from past mistakes. A chance to become more YOU! And that is a gift the world is longing for! So let's cherish the bittersweet taste of endings and look forward to the coming beginning with positive expectation and inspired action being guided by our intuition.

Love life!

If you think you're old, you are.

The Psychologist John Bargh and his team asked students at New York University in the age group 18-22 to make sentences with four words by choosing words from a set group of words. One group of students could choose from a group of words where half of the words could strongly be associated with old age and senior citizens. Words like "Florida", "bald", "wrinkle", "forgetful", "gray", not words like "grand-children", "time-off" or "retired" . When they were done with the task the students from both groups were asked to walk down a short hall to fill out a form in a different room. It was this short walk that was the actual experiment. The students that had worked with the words that could be associated to old age walked at a slower pace than the other students. Why do you think this happened? The students said that they could not see a common theme but had still been affected by the words. This is called the Florida effect and is one of the earliest examples of "priming". Priming means the use of background factors to put someone in a psychological state that affects their actions without their conscious knowledge.

I recently watched a BBC documentary on aging presented by Johnny Ball. One of the studies presented in the documentary was one performed by Dr Elen Langer in 1979 when she took a group of elderly volunteeers, all over the age of 75, back in time. They had to live like they were 20 years younger and they were taken to a timeless retreat were everything was exactly as it had been 20 years earlier. On arrival they had to take care of their own luggage and were fully expected to take care of themselves one hundred percent. After a week the group showed improved dexterity, increased joint flexibility, more energetic gait and were moving around at a noticably faster pace. Some of the men had put on weight and actually looked younger and some even had improved eye sight and hearing.

A winning strategy for longevity seems to be to feel and live like you are young, vibrant and healthy . Do you do this? Or are there factors in your environment that pulls you down? Factors that makes you feel old and slows down your walk?

"You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with." - Jim Rohn

Who do you hang out with and what do you talk about? Do you feel uplifted, optimistic and excited about life when you spend time with your friends?  Do you leave the room with a youthful gait, feeling great about who you are, knowing that your friends have your back covered and you have theirs? If not, try to make room for change. Make room for positive change, positive people, positive experiences. To make room you have to let something go. Let go of negativity bit by bit. Negative environments, negative people, negative talk and find your community where you can thrive, live long and prosper.

A major factor for longevity is the sense of community, of belonging and having a purpose. Perhaps the test group of 1979 also felt a sense of community with like minded people during this week? If you have the right genes you can live long no matter what you eat, drink or smoke but if you're not that lucky (and that applies to most of us) you can try a low calorie diet and most importantly find a community if you're not already part of one. See my earlier post on Blue Villages.

Just be happy!

Many health gurus teach us that if you are happy and relaxed the body goes into repair mode and gives you a much better chance to recover from disease and become healthy. When we are upset or stressed out our bodies are busy being prepared for fight or flight so there's not much resources left for repairs. If we stay in this state for a long time the back log of needed repairs is getting longer and longer and your health can be (probably will be) affected. If you already have a health problem it will be harder to recover.

But all you need to do is to be happy, right?  Preferably all the time! Easy peasy...or not... let’s see if we got this one right. Soooo... if you just got diagnosed with a possibly fatal disease… or if you are extremely stressed out and depressed... you just make sure to be happy and your body will fix itself. There we go, problem solved!  We just have a tiny detail to figure out before our body starts doing all that repairing. How do you manage to start getting into happy mode and make more frequent visits there until you manage to stay happy most of the time? 

This may seem nearly impossible for a person that is in chock or in a depression. But if you manage to take one small step at a time to get you closer to more frequent visits to happiness mode you can improve how you perceive life. The simple procedure of writing a list of the things that you love to do and that makes you smile can help.  Just writing the list can put a smile on your face because it puts your mind on situations that makes you feel good. If you make it a priority to incorporate at least one or two of the listed items in your everyday activities you are on your way to become happier!  It's not the hard to reach activities, like parachuting or taking a trip to Galapagos that you put on the list, but the simple things like a walk in the park, enjoying a cup of your favourite tea, hugs from your loved ones, a pet you love, spending a moment with a close friend or reading an uplifting book. 

The items on your list can also be an inspiration for creating a gratitude list. Isn't everything that makes you feel great something to be grateful for? If you recognize simple things to be grateful for each day, you are moving even more towards a happier life! 
Dan Buettner explores happy populations to see what they can teach us. His results may help you on your way if you want to try happiness the Blue Zones way?

Be happy and shine your light for all to see!

Do you meditate?

Meditation is a practice of calming the mind, training the mind to be in a more relaxed state to make you feel better emotionally and physically. To regain health or to stay healthy and happy. 

What do you need to meditate?  You need to know how to do it, a quiet place to sit, inside or outside, a moment in time to be undisturbed and perhaps somebody to sit with. This doesn't seem that difficult does it? There are places where you can learn how to meditate for free (or almost for free) and  you can always find a quiet place and 10 minutes. Even if it's 10 minutes in your car parked in the street or sitting on a bench in a park on your lunch hour.

The basic principle of meditation is to still the mind and let your thoughts wander, just letting them pass like clouds in the sky, not paying attention to them. Watching them getting fewer and more far between. There are different tools and tricks to help you succeed with not paying attention to your thoughts. You can focus on your breath, count your breath, recite a mantra in your mind or out loud, use a rosary, chant and more.  A good way to start and keep doing it is to simply focus on your breath.  

There are so many wonderful books on meditation and there are fantastic recorded guided meditations available for download or on CD to teach you and help you to meditate. There are even programs using brainwave technology that changes your brainwave frequency when you listen to them so you reach a deeper level of relaxation.  Many offer classes in how to meditate, where it takes  a few sessions to learn the art of meditation. All these opportunities are great and wonderful and within reach for most people. 

But do all these choices make meditation seem complicated and make you feel like you don't really know which book to get or what mp3 to buy and download? Or does it make you wonder if you should take a course or not since it must be hard to do? And do you really have to sit in some strange, uncomfortable yogi position? In that case it may end right there. Well don’t worry! There is a simple way to get you started.

Find that quiet place where you can be undisturbed for 10 minutes. Sit in a comfortable position, preferably with your back straight. Take 3 long deep breaths to help you relax. Close your eyes and just focus on your breath for 10 minutes. Feel how your chest moves with each breath. When a thought comes by just let it pass. Whenever you  loose focus on your breath and follow a thought, just go back to focusing on your breath as soon as you notice that you drifted. It's not a competition and you dont have to be perfect. Every time will be different and even if you feel like you are drifting away on every thought that shows up you are still getting the benefits from meditating. If you want help to get started you may find a church or organisation that gives you an almost free introduction. In Göteborg, Sweden you can get an introduction here

Happy meditating!