A positive mental attitude enhances the immune system, improves heart efficiency, stimulates the nervous system, regenerates organs, enhances digestion, aids the colon, (IBS) improves diabetes, extends lifespan, makes you calmer, happier, more in control and lifts depression and anxiety…

Here are a few ways to help you achieve a better quality of life:

• Do a random act of kindness whenever you get the opportunity (at least every day). The more you give, the happier you become – smile at a stranger, open a door, give compliments, laugh at people’s jokes, forgive etc.

• Make an effort with communicating- ask questions and be interested in answers.

• Be grateful, even at the smallest of things (- smile and say ‘thank you, I’m very grateful for…’)

• Volunteer at a charity. This will give you immediate feelings of satisfaction and well being together with long term happiness. Volunteering will enhance energy levels and self-worth. Your social life may also improve as an added bonus. The impact on health has been found to improve headaches, infections such as colds & coughs and insomnia etc.

• Treat everyone as equal, regardless of age, status etc. Suffering from discrimination can lead to coronary artery calcification and raised blood pressure. It also creates feelings of guilt in the discriminator.

• Be in the ‘here and now’ by practising mindfulness or meditation.

• Be compassionate towards people and they will trust you more.

• We mirror other people, so by being kind, smiley and positive- we get it back too!

Have you ever clammed up at a party or found yourself tongue-tied at a meeting for fear of saying something stupid? This happens with the best of us – even though we are as intelligent as others in the room…

6 ways you can help yourself
• Pair up with person who is confident and out-going , or has a higher position within the group. In a social situation, this person can introduce you and keep talk flowing, or bring up your points in a business meeting and then throw you an opening into the conversation.

• Talk to the person running the meeting beforehand. Mention the points you want to discuss and ask for an opportunity to bring them up. Explain why you are asking.

• Prepare. In a business meeting, know what you want to say, practice your delivery and bring notes. This will help prevent you from being distracted by what others are saying.

• Rehearse the meeting / party going really well for a few seconds before you begin. If your brain has a mental picture of success- it will be more likely to present that in reality.

• Take a break. If you feel anxious or that your mental energy is dwindling, drink some water or go for a stroll to refresh your mind and body. Your mind and body often need re-setting like a computer.

• Realize others in the room are likely to feel the same way. Most of all – don’t beat yourself up about it – everyone gets nervous sometimes – it often looks endearing!

Three out of four of British people experience depression at some stage of their lives. Most of these people do not receive adequate care. However, researchers may have discovered a new “drug” for depression that most people can take advantage of and utilize: Exercise.
In an American study, (which involved 80 adults aged 20 to 45 years who were diagnosed with mild to moderate depression) researchers looked at exercise alone to treat the condition and found:
• Depressive symptoms were cut almost in half in those individuals who participated in 30-minute aerobic exercise sessions, three to five times a week after 12 weeks
• Those who exercised with low-intensity for three and five days a week showed a 30 percent reduction in symptoms
• Participants who did stretching flexibility exercises 15 to 20 minutes three days a week averaged a 29 percent decline
However, most people who are not used to exercising don’t know where to start. Even the thought of exercise is daunting, especially if you are over-weight. When clients ask me about advice, I suggest gentle walking. Its easy, low impact on the knees and back, cheap and can be done at any time of the day.
A 2010 study on primates published in Neuroscience also revealed that regular exercise not only improved blood flow to the brain, but also helped the monkeys learn new tasks twice as quickly as non-exercising monkeys; a benefit the researchers believe would hold true for people as well.
Children
We all know that children need exercise. We also know that they don’t get enough of it. Apparently less than a third of kids aged 6 – 17 yrs get 20 minutes of exercise a day. This is awful! Ensuring kids get enough exercise means a reduced risk of diabetes, improved immune function, weight loss, better sleep, improved mood, increased energy, reduced restlessness and stronger bones.

Now I know that it’s cold & dark when we get up and we’ve had hail stones & torrential rain all week…however – it’s vital that we continue to exercise to keep ourselves from feeling depressed. I tried to remind myself of this fact as I cycled in the freezing rain across Bristol yesterday with sodden feet and my gloves wet through! The great thing about exercising is that one bout of brisk exercise keeps you feeling good for hours after! Don’t think about it – just do it! http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Depression/Pages/Depressionexercise.aspx
Exercise for depression – Live Well – NHS Choices
www.nhs.uk
Find out the benefits of exercise for depression, including how to get exercise on prescription.

The physical effects
Anger sets off the ‘fight or flight’ mechanism. We can also experience this by feeling fear, excitement and anxiety. The body is flooded with adrenaline and cortisol. Heart rate, blood pressure and respiration increase, the body temperature rises and the skin perspires. The mind is sharpened and focused.
Health problems.
The constant flood of stress chemicals can eventually cause harm to many different systems of the body. Some of the short and long-term health problems that have been linked to unmanaged anger include:

Headache, Digestion problems, such as abdominal pain and IBS, Insomnia, Increased anxiety, Depression, High blood pressure, Skin problems, such as eczema, Heart attack and Stroke.
The benefits of regular exercise in mood management.
Numerous worldwide studies have documented that regular exercise can improve mood and reduce stress levels. The effect may be twofold: physical exertion burns up excess adrenalin, and it also boosts the production of mood-regulating neurotransmitters in the brain, like endorphins and catecholamines.
Visiting a hypnotherapist can also help you to learn how to deeply relax and teach you various ways to think about your life – rather than allowing yourself to get annoyed. Visit – www.clementine-hypnotherapy.co.uk

http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/anger_how_it_affects_people?open

It seems that Mindfulness – which is the practice of being in the moment; noticing our surroundings and our body – in the here and now. In other words – not thinking or doing – just BEING – can really help our mood to stabilise. This is due to NOT allowing ourselves to negatively ponder upon past experiences or negatively forecast our future. Instead we simply stay in the moment and experience being alive… http://www.mbct.com/About_sub08.htm

The Neuropeptide – Oxytocin – can help to bring down anxiety, reduce blood pressure & lower cortisol levels. It does this by suppressing the activity of the amydala in the brain. This the area that controls behaviour & often warns us of stress due to our thoughts… – visit – http://www.raysahelian.com/oxytocin.html

oxytocin hormone how to increase levels
ttp://www.raysahelian.com/oxytocin.html

Apparently feeling grateful helps us to produce more energy, more optimism and feel more socially connected than people who don’t. Therefore we suffer less with depression, envy, greed and addiction. We also sleep better…. Helping kids to be grateful can be encouraged by asking them- ”what was your favourite thing from today & what’re you looking forward to tomorrow…?”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704243904575630541486290052.html

Thank You. No, Thank You.
online.wsj.com
Research suggests that being grateful for the blessings in life can help improve peoples’ psychological, emotional

Having spent most of my life feeling anxious, Im interested in how & why anxiety manifests itself. Being a hypnotherapist I understand that every negative thought that I have creates anxiety, so controlling that negative voice whittering away in my head is a good start… I also realise that my brain cannot detect real anxiety from everyday negative thoughts, so simply thinking about something negative has the same effect as being in real danger. This knowledge is incredibly empowering as I realise that most of my anxious thoughts are not useful or a reality. The chemicals that my brain release when Im having anxious thoughts are adrenalin & cortisol – really useful for fighting or running away. However- thankfully, I dont need to do much running away as I live in the sleepy, harbourside city of Bristol (UK) with it’s longest street of murals in Europe, free museums and is easy to cycle around….. So instead of those anxiety chemicals whizzing round my brain – Ive become adept at being in the moment and wondering about all the positive things in my world – that way- I get a nice fuzzy feeling as my brain then perceives Im happy & gives me a rush of seratonin instead… aaah….lovely

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