Its something we can all learn. So often we have our preconceived thoughts of what we want to say and fail to pick up on what the other has just said…
7 Simple ways to get your energy levels back up – Part II
Here is the second of my two-part Blog series on the seven simple ways to boost your energy level, increase your lifespan and improve your general outlook on life.
The first three steps I elaborated on in my last blog were:
1. Liberating yourself from sugar addiction
2. Drinking good water
3. Eating less and eating good, seasonal local foods
- Moderate exercise
There is a wonder cure out there and it is so glaringly obvious that most people are simply not seeing it. You can significantly improve your health, boost your life-span, reduce your stress level, improve your mood, reduce high blood pressure and improve your bone density by simply getting more exercise.
All the latest medical research pinpoints lack of exercise as one of the major causes of many of our modern-day diseases. Even such psychological illnesses as depression are at least partly linked to lack of exercise.
Only a generation or two ago most of us humans had exercise equivalent to a brisk 20 kilometre run per day. Since the 1950s most jobs have moved from agriculture and heavy labour on the factory floor to sitting in the office.
Our anatomy and our body metabolism are not designed to sit in a chair for eight hours a day. Taking a break does not mean having your lunch in front of the computer and multi-tasking at the same time. Why not take a walk around the block for at least 20 minutes? You will feel much, much better and have more energy to cope with the typical “early afternoon energy sink-hole.”
But when you decide to get more exercise, it would be wise to do it right. Doing heavy workouts in the gym or going for long, exhausting jogging runs with no prior preparation or only periodically, will do you more harm than good. If you have to catch your breath and can hear your heartbeat “bursting from your eardrums” you are overdoing it. Give your body time to adjust, the energies to regulate themselves, before continuing at a more moderate pace.
One of my course participants, who had trouble fitting in an exercise schedule during her busy working day, chose to cycle to work by bicycle, triggering a major shift in her sense of well-being and personal health. You could also choose to climb the stairs rather than taking the elevator. Another way of tricking out the inner monster telling you it is nicer to slump down on the coach than going for a walk, would be to park the car further down the road
- Power napping
Some of the most successful people in the world, had a habit of taking a short afternoon nap to rejuvenate. To name a few: Albert Einstein, Salvador Dali, Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher and John F. Kennedy. Here are some tips on good power napping: http://www.wikihow.com/Power-Nap
Most of us are not getting enough sleep. Research (Read: The science of power naps: http://goo.gl/CDQi0L) indicates that power naps lasting no more than 10-15 minutes can boost our brains, including improvements to creative problem solving, verbal memory, perceptual learning, object learning, and statistical learning. Naps also improve our mood and feelings of sleepiness and fatigue.
- Avoiding vampires
We all have vampires around us. These are the folk that are so angry and upset with life that they are preoccupied in finding the first person in the vicinity to throw their verbal garbage of negativity at you. You want to be polite and aren’t getting in a word edgewise at this person who is telling you the world has gone mad and is going downhill because all the young people are on drugs and too lazy to work. The government is controlled by a secret organisation manipulating us and isn’t it so terrible what is just happening in Timbuktu. True there are bad things happening in the world. But at the same time a lot of good things are happening at the same time. Why not shift the focus. The art of happiness is in dealing with the normal yin and yang cycle, the ups and downs, the darkness and the light of what is life. We are co-creators of our reality. Reframing and shifting the mindset to a positive spin, immediately opens the gate to a warm flow of energy.
- Getting into sync with nature
For the past couple of years, I’ve made it a personal ritual to take at least a two-week time-out in nature on a hike. Luckily my wife has found just as much joy in the activity. Initially you take a few days to get accustomed. The body detoxes, muscles ache and your back is hurting from lugging a backpack all day. But after walking for a couple of days many of the basic senses return. You find your natural rhythm. You smell the fresh mountain air, the grasses and herbs, hear the different bird songs, the rushing waters of a creek and feel the rain and the sun on your skin. For months after the hike, I’ve felt myself surging on a much higher energy level. It need not be a hike. You can get your hands dirty by digging in the garden, planting a tree or flower and reconnecting with the natural forces.
I am convinced there is a universal truth surrounding us from which we have been disconnected by living in concrete jungles.
Nature is a source for solace and regeneration, a way of reconnecting to your soul’s purpose by sensing your part as a human in the bigger play of things.
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7 Simple ways to get your energy levels back up
During my workshops people frequently tell me how exhausted they are from many things ranging from work pressure to emotional stresses at home. That, I tell them, is a good sign, because they are feeling their bodies and the need to do something about it.
Your energy level determines your sense of well-being, happiness, creativity, mood and long-term quality of life. And, it is so easy to do something about it. You have the power to make that decision. Here are the first three steps. The others will follow in my next blogs:
1. Liberate yourself from sugar addiction
Freeing yourself from sugar addiction is one of the most important things you can do to boost your health. Sugar is a stimulant that puts your body on alert by boosting the stress hormone cortisol. Your blood pressure increases and initially you feel a boost of energy. The downside is that such a feeling is only short-lived like taking an addictive drug.
Did you know that the average Pizza you buy from the supermarket is filled with the equivalent of 25 teaspoons of sugar. All the common soda drinks have equally high white sugar content. Artificial sweeteners are suspected of causing Alzheimer and many other modern-day illnesses. See this damning report on how the pharmaceutical industry managed to bring it onto the market
Sugar upsets the calcium/phosphorus ratio and thus the homeostasis process in the body. Phosphorus is one of the most important nutrients your body needs because it helps filter out waste in the kidneys and stores energy. Most of it is also used to strengthen the bones and teeth.
Try and do without sugar for about 40 days and you will feel the difference. There are alternatives out there such as unrefined raw cane sugar, honey and stevia that you can buy in any organic store.
2. Drinking good water
Water is crucial to flushing out toxins in your body and is the most crucial life-sustaining drink. Between 50 and 75 per cent of your body is composed of water. It is responsible for functions such as digestion, absorption, circulation, creation of saliva, transportation of nutrients, and maintenance of body temperature. There are different views on how much each individual needs. It depends a lot on your age, the temperature and the amount of exercise you are doing. A lot of our tap water however is contaminated with heavy metals, hormones and pesticides. So be sure that your source of water is healthy – ideally spring water. You can also add flavour to your water by adding frozen berries, lemon or cucumber. Your intake of calory foods and soft drinks will naturally decrease.
3. Eat less and eat healthy seasonal foods
Local seasonal foods with short transportation routes still carry a lot of nutrients that you won’t find in those supermarket foods that have been in storage for a long time before they reach your table. Even many of the power foods no longer have the nutrient level they once had because of degenerating soils, long transportation routes and genetic manipulation. (see graph below) If you eat better quality food your portions can also be smaller. Eating slowly and with pleasure also gives the body time to digest.
|
Tested Vegetable |
Nutrient |
1985 |
1996 |
2002 |
Variation in % 1985-1996 |
1985-2002 |
|
Broccoli
|
Calcium manganese |
103 24 |
33 18 |
28 11 |
-68 -25 |
-73 -55 |
|
Spinach |
Magnesium Vitamin C |
62 51 |
19 21 |
15 18 |
-68 -58 |
-76 -65 |
|
Banana |
Calcium folic acid magnesium Vitamin B6 |
8 23 31 330 |
7 3 27 22 |
7 5 24 18 |
-12 -84 -13 -92 |
-12 -79 -25 -95
Source: 1985 Geigy. 1996 and 2002 Food laboratory Karlsruhe/Sanatorium Oberthal, Germany. |
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Trends that could change our world
Big changes often come in many small almost unnoticeable steps. When looking back two or three decades none of us would ever have predicted the break-up of the Soviet Union and the end of apartheid in South Africa.
We could never have imagined using technology like skype or facebook to communicate with family and friends living in distant corners of the world with a pocket-sized smart-phone from virtually any location.
On the political side we have seen the bankruptcy of ideologies such as communism and apartheid that tried to impose fixed systems that simply could not work in a fast-changing world. I would even dare to say that what we are now seeing in the Ukraine, Russia, the Middle East, North Korea and China are the last kicks of the dying horse of political and religious dogma. And we know from the past that when major changes are coming it is initially accompanied by a lot of turmoil.
Russian President Putin’s power-posturing in the Crimea comes out of a position of weakness and the loss of the eastern Ukraine to a people’s revolution seeking freedom. There is more to come, even in Russia itself.
The telecommunication/communication revolution on the economic side has given hundreds of millions of people the opportunity to access information they would otherwise never have had, cutting a swathe through the censorship attempts of dictatorial governments. The Internet is far more efficient at spreading information from the grassroots than the print media ever was, much to the chagrin of many a journalist from the old school.
After the Internet revolution of the 1990s we are now moving into an era of networking, cooperative partnerships and sustainable economies. The signs are all out there. A lot of start-ups and many very creative individuals out there are getting together to form business partnerships, sharing their talents and knowledge. Many of them are so fed-up with the banking system that they are going into Bitcoin and other alternative forms of financing such as crowd-funding, getting a lot of new technology out there that would otherwise never be available.
The Internet makes it all possible. Many of us are already working from home and offering our talents and skills to many different employers at the same time or joining groups of other people (living in many different parts of the world) for specific projects. I am seeing a lot of the younger folk simply refusing to join the system in big companies that have a reputation of treating their employees like machines. The most innovative, creative companies are those with small, highly motivated and talented teams. These are people with a similar mind-set getting together to start something really new and enjoying what they are doing.
We are after all social animals that love to interact with our fellow human beings. So sooner then we might think we will be beaming 3D images of ourselves across the world with the famous catch phrase from the science fiction series Star Trek “Beam me up, Scotty.”
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Take a Walk, Sure, but Don’t Call It a Break
Walking as one alternative to a sedentary life. Or get a dog to help motivate you for several walks a day 😉
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How wolves change rivers
I saw this amazing video on how the return of wolves in Yellowstone actually sees the entire ecosystem change for the positive, giving life to many different species.
http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/how-wolves-change-rivers/
Just a few months ago the first wolves were sighted in our district near Lueneburg, southeast of Hamburg. They have returned for the first time in over 200 years, probably having migrated from Poland or Romania. In the past the Iron Curtain prevented them from crossing. But they were also relentlessly shot by ruthless hunters stuck in “old thinking” that these wonderful animals are a danger to humans.
But even here the wolf is hardly being welcomed. The population is more or less divided 50-50 between eco-friendly “wolf fans” and fearful farmers, dog owners and even parents fearing their children or dogs might be attacked.
Fear of the wolf is deeply ingrained in human nature and almost all the fears are irrational. Lets look at the facts. During the past 100 years, there have been only two incidents in North America, in 2005 and 2010, where wolves have allegedly killed a human. The most comprehensive report on wolf attacks ist the “Linnell-Report” conducted by Norwegian researchers based on data over the past 400 years from North America, Europe and Asia. Between 1950 and the year 2000 there were 59 attacks on humans in Europe from an estimated wolf population of 15.000 (excluding Russia and Belarus) Some 38 of the attacks were from wolves infected with rabies. Five humans actually died in the attacks.
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My homeland South Africa is still blessed with regions like the Mkzuzi and Hluhluwe game reserves that are virtually untouched by mankind. When going on a hike with an experienced ranger in these areas you can learn how everything from the Acacia tree to the Rhinoceros are interconnected. Take out one species and the whole system goes into imbalance. This is why poaching is wreaking such havoc at the heart of Africa.
The principle is that nature always eventually returns to the balanced state of ” interconnectedness”. It is only recently that we have begun to understand that we too as humans cannot separate ourselves from nature.
The huge task of this and coming generations is that we need to find our niche within the system if we want to survive as a species. I have gone into more detail on this in my book: Yield and Overcome
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City life versus country life. What is better?
For decades now we have seen a global phenomenon. Hundreds of millions of people are deserting the countryside and moving to the big cities. Its time to take stock. Is life really all that much better in the city? Signs are that indeed a growing number of people are moving back to the rural areas, finding that life out in the backwoods is not so bad after all.
Many young people, fed-up at being unemployed in the big Greek, Spanish or Italian cities are finding contentment by moving to grandparents or long-forgotten aunts and uncles in remote rural villages. There they live easy-going lives cultivating vegetables or picking olives. The trend is catching on elsewhere too.
Even in the much wealthier Germany a growing number of city-slickers are moving to rural communes based on a sustainable and alternative lifestyle. One such village is Sieben Linden http://goo.gl/7LxYxL in a remote part of eastern Germany. The 100 adults and 40 children living there are not bound by any religion or ideology. It is a microcosm of different ideas and people with the common cause to leave as small a carbon footprint as possible, experimenting with natural building materials such as clay and hay or cultivating organic vegetables.
I moved to a mainly farming village, 76 kilometres, southeast of Hamburg some 18 years ago and have never regretted it. I was simply fed-up with the grumpiness, the anonymity, the noise and the stress level in the big city. Some years ago I was shocked to learn that a retired former colleague of mine was found in his Hamburg apartment. He had been lying dead in his armchair for over a year. The janitor only opened the door after neighbour’s complained of a smell in the building during a hot summer!
You could say that the downside of country life is that everybody is minding everyone else’s business. But is that really bad? If my 93-year-old neighbour fails to appear before her favourite window for a day, sure enough I would have people asking me, whether I had seen Ilse and if she is still OK. Most children still have the decency to greet adults or to ask strangers looking for directions, if they can be of assistance. I can get fresh milk from the local farmer and have a chat about local politics. If I need someone to feed the cats, there is always someone to help, and we do the same. Its a natural give-and-take. Of course there are disputes between neighbours here too. This is not paradise. But it is nothing like the vicious acrimony I’ve seen between neighbours in the city over petty things such parking space.
Life in a city, especially in Europe, is exorbitantly expensive. I would not even get a small apartment in Hamburg for the price I paid for my big house and property here. Everything from food, garbage collection to water and electricity costs at least a third more. That adds to the stress to earn enough just to get by. When you are in your early 20s you enjoy the night life, the concerts, the movies and the many other attractions a city has to offer. But the shine wears off. Quality of life cannot be measured only in material terms and an entertainment agenda. This is the illusion of city life. The truth is that most people in the big cities appear to be in a constant rush and are pretty stressed-out, if you ask me. But I would enjoy your opinion on this?
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A theft and lessons to learn
When my wife Alyce called me on the phone after a function last week, I knew from the tone of her voice that something nasty had happened. She was devastated. Her handbag had been stolen.
The small amount of cash in the bag was not the real problem. But it was rather more the valuables such as her residence permit in Germany, driver’s license, credit cards and the iPhone with all contact addresses – more worrisome the house and car keys
Any crime victim will attest: Apart from “things” stolen, it is the invasiveness of knowing that persons with evil intentions have taken or have access to some of your most personal belongings, that is the real trauma.
After a sleepless night and making the dog sleep in front of the door to keep away potential burglars, we set about assessing the damage. Just changing the house door and car locks would set us back several hundred euros. Worst of all: Weeks of bureaucratic time and trouble in getting new documents.
“So what’s this teaching us?” “What have we done to deserve this?” “Couldn’t I have been more careful?” were just some of the questions going through Alyces mind. It took some time to realise that what we teach others we also had to learn: Good decisions come only from a calm mind. Nothing happens without a reason.
First thing was to get a new iPhone because Alyce was scheduled to leave for a business trip to London on Sunday. Only when configurating the new phone it dawned on me. The iPhone data was in the cloud so it should be possible to find its location. Sure enough after a few clicks on Google maps, Alyces iPhone was telling me it was about one kilometre from the crime scene where it was stolen.
While I was still telling Alyce not to get her hopes up to high we started searching the area that the map was showing us. “So we just go up there and knock on the house door of the thief to ask for your things back?” I asked sarcastically. “I know its right there. I can feel it. Its just over the fence right over there…” I heard Alyce saying. While googlemaps was just giving us a rough indication, it would be much more difficult to actually find the gadget. But then Alyce did something quite amazing. “I’m just going to go by my gut feeling. I am going right over the fence there to get my things!”
Sure enough a few minutes later, a victorious and beaming Alyce found her bag behind a bush where it had been thrown by the thieves, who had obviously overlooked the iPhone in one of the pockets in their hurry to find money and credit cards. So what did we learn:
- Nothing beats modern technology combined with gut intelligence
- Shit happens. So what? Don’t get stuck. Move on.
- Ground yourself. Keep a calm mind. Sleep over it a night and then make whatever decision you need to make.
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8 Ways to Eat More Plants
By Luke Jones. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
There are a lot of contradictions in the world of nutrition. Many different experts have many different ideas, and the sheer volume of varying information can be enough to make your head spin if you’re not careful. Hopefully though, there’s one thing we can all agree on:
Whether we’re talking vegan or paleo, high carb or low carb, athletes or the sedentary, healthy or sick:
Everyone could benefit from including lots of whole plant foods in their diet.
There’s a quiet movement happening in the background of our lives. Plant foods are increasingly being recognised for their health benefits, and their role in preventing and even reversing many chronic diseases. People are beginning to wake up and smell the kale.
In terms of micro-nutrients, generally vegetables are the most mineral dense foods available, and fruits are often the most…
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