Wednesday, June 19, 2019

Self-care


                                               Self-care, tips and helpful information :



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“Nourishing yourself in a way that helps you blossom in the direction you want to go is attainable, and you are worth the effort.”

                                                                  – Deborah Day

What is self-care?

The practice of acting to preserve or improve one’s own health. Is taking care of and honoring your body, mind, and spirit in a way that activates your best self. Today I want to talk about all the benefits, tips and everything that surrounds the topic of self-care.

Self-care should be a priority, taking care of yourself helps you to take better care of those who are by your side. It is so easy to live from the routine and forget yourself and not dedicate time to ourselves.

In order to have better self-care, I want to let you know 5 ways to take care of yourself:

1.     Prioritize sleep: This is an easy and quick way to introduce self-care on a whole different level.

2.     Speak kindly–especially to yourself:  When you speak kind, truthful words you notice how your mind-set changes.

3.     Manage stressors: It is okay to say “no”, this little word can be empowering.

4.     Practice gratitude: Share your appreciation with the people that are kind to you.

5.     Learn to listen to your body: The more in tune we are with our physical body, the easier it becomes to read these signs.

When you take care of yourself and put into practice the ways of taking care of yourself, you will see a great difference in your life in a positive way, but how self-care benefits you. We are all less able to handle the stresses that come our way when we're already depleted by physical and emotional exhaustion. Or, put in a more positive way, we are more resilient and more able to handle life's stress when we are feeling our best both physically and emotionally. Taking time out to care for yourself can remind you and others that you and your needs are important, too.

Why is self-care so important?

Self-care is important because loving  yourself is important, and putting yourself first is not selfish is also important, when you are paying attention to your own self-care you will feel more connected to yourself and the world around you, you will go about your day with less stress and nothing is going to be as difficult as it did before. Be healthy, look after your physical health, give back to others and your community, connect with friends and family. When you do all that and see the difference around you, you will understand better the importance of self-care.

What about work, work is also one of the factors that influence self-care. There some tips about self-care that you can practice at work:

1.     Stop over committing yourself.

2.     Don't settle for superficial work relationships.

3.     Update your workspace.

4.     Take note of what you've accomplished on the job once a week or so.

5.     Congratulate yourself for your efforts and anything you've done.



        Another factor that influences a lot in self-care is social media.  There are some ways to practice self-care on social media.

Be mindful:  As you’re looking through social media feeds, take a second to check in with yourself. Do you feel happy and energized? Or tired and preoccupied? Why are you feeling this way?

Consider taking a break: If you’ve realized that spending time on any social media platform makes you feel tired or irritable, consider taking a break.  It can be liberating to eliminate unnecessary stresses from your life.

Get rid of guilt: People around you may poke fun if you Instagram your meal or take an extra second to get the right angle for your selfie. Keep doing you! Don’t feel guilty about the things you genuinely enjoy.

Don’t ignore cyberbullying: Bullying is always serious, whether it’s online or in person. If someone is constantly posting hurtful comments on your or someone else’s posts, take action. Block the offender, report the abuse, and talk to someone you trust about it.




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“Don’t make friends who are comfortable to be with. Make friends who will force you to lever yourself up.”

                     -Thomas J. Watson

Have you think that friendship is another form of self-care and in my opinion the most important of all, because without a friend nothing is possible, and friendship is one of the most valuable things we have. That’s another way to take care of yourself expending time with one of the most important persons in your live, your friends, and there are so many things that you can do together like getting your nails done, make Saturday or even Sunday mornings brunch together, learn how to make a new cocktail, or even a recipe that you have always wanted to do, you can also do exercise together , there are so many things you can do with your friend and that is another form of self-care.

 People today have the freedom to build their own social convoy, which may include family, friends, and other important individuals in their life. Some of these relationships may be predominantly or exclusively online, while others involve face-to-face interactions. Understanding how to establish and maintain these supportive connections is an essential part of life.

I could spend hours talking about self-care,  all the different areas that selfcare covers but I think  that the most important thing is that we put into practice all these tips that are so helpful for a better life, do not leave for tomorrow what you can do today but above all do not miss having the best moments of your life for not taking better care of you. Remember to always have time for yourself, be happy, and do something new every day so you can see at the end the difference that taking care of yourself makes.



 “You keep tabs on the victories of others but failed to notice that you just crossed yet another milestone. How do you hold up the light for others but turn it out when it gets to you.”

                                                                                                                _Chinonye J. Chidolue


Self-Care Exercising


Self-Care Exercising


  Exercising regularly is one of the best things you can do for your health. Soon after you start exercising, you'll begin to see and feel the benefits that physical activity can have on your body and well-being. However, working exercise into your routine takes a lot of determination, and sticking to it in the long term requires discipline. If you're considering starting to exercise but don't know where to begin, this article is for you. Here's all you need to know about starting a routine and sticking to it.

Why Exercise?
      Regular exercise has been shown to significantly improve your health.  Its greatest benefits include helping you achieve and maintain a healthy body weight, maintain muscle mass and reduce your risk of chronic disease.  Additionally, research has shown that exercise can lift your mood, boost your mental health, help you sleep better and even enhance your sex life.  And that's not all — it can also help you maintain good energy levels. In short, exercise is powerful and can change your life.

·          Aerobic: Usually the core of any fitness program, it includes periods of continuous movement. Examples include swimming, running and dancing.
·         Strength: Helps increase muscle power and strength. Examples include resistance training, plyometrics, weight lifting and sprinting.
·         Calisthenics: Basic body movements done without gym equipment and at a medium aerobic pace. Examples include lunges, sit-ups, push-ups and pull-ups.
·         High-intensity interval training (HIIT): Includes repetitions of short bursts of high-intensity exercise followed by low-intensity exercises or rest periods.
·         Boot camps: Timed-based, high-intensity circuits that combine aerobic and resistance exercises.
·         Balance or stability: Strengthens muscles and improves body coordination. Examples include Pilates, tai chi poses and core-strengthening exercises.
·         Flexibility: Aides muscle recovery, maintains range of motion and prevents injuries. Examples include yoga or individual muscle-stretch movements.
. Examples include Pilates, tai chi poses and core-strengthening exercises.
     Flexibility: Aides muscle recovery, maintains range of motion and prevents injuries. Examples include yoga or individual muscle-stretch movements.

Whether you are aiming to improve your performance in a sport or activity or just want to reap the benefits of physical activity, body conditioning exercises strengthen and improve your body and performance. Body conditioning generally includes aerobic exercise, strength training and stretching and flexibility exercises.  Conditioning workouts are not a new fad. Adding them to your workout routine will drastically improve your progress by ensuring your body is ready for increased exertion levels.

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            Conditioning!!!

Conditioning workouts strengthen tendons, ligaments, and muscles and improve flexibility and range-of-motion, so your body is prepared when you start to use increased loads or higher intensity.  By including conditioning workouts in your daily schedule, your body will also burn calories after you have completed your exercise routine; allowing you to maximize the effects of your workout.
One of the biggest reasons men give up their workout plan is injury or soreness.
Even if you're eager to achieve your weight loss and lean muscle building goals; if you get injured or feel too sore, too often, you will likely give up on your workouts.  Conditioning workouts seek to avoid these issues. These workouts help to prepare your muscles, ligaments, tendons and other fibers in your body, to get stronger. This will lead to your ability to lift heavier and longer without detriment to the extent of you giving up altogether. Your body needs to be strong, but flexible and mobile enough to avoid injuries and soreness. This is achieved through the use of weights to push your body to a point where overload is not quite achieved. It will be just before too many micro-tears are made in your muscles, so soreness and injury are not caused. Conditioning means making your body capable of performing at the same level when you start working out and when you finish your routine. A good conditioning workout will build stamina but will also increase your strength levels. The good news is that conditioning exercises are easy to complete and can be incorporated into your schedule; even when you are struggling for time.
Why Are Conditioning Workouts So Effective?
Conditioning workouts are as effective as they build a solid foundation for your body, ready for you to move to the next level of physical exertion.  As previously mentioned, they build stronger muscles, tendons, and ligaments as well as increasing flexibility and mobility. It is this combination that makes them effective at keeping away most injuries and muscle soreness. A good example is our 24-minute fat burning workout, which moves you up through a pyramid, warming up your muscles and allowing plenty of range-of-motion, without overexerting your muscles. Perhaps the best part about this type of workout is that you will definitely feel like you've been put through your paces, but will not be so sore that you want to go back to sitting on the sofa. No matter what your fitness goals; it is important to include conditioning workouts to ensure maximum muscle definition and weight loss.
All in all, in self-care we need to build up and start exercising just because it is best for health. I myself just started working out last month and I’ve lost a certain amount of weight by just following up on my conditioning. I also workout with my friends and we all do heavy lifting and it helps me the most because it’s literally been a year since I worked out and they are helping me out with my life in trying to get back into it. Mostly, everyone has to get to that point in life where they finally figure out that they need to start going to the gym. My point came last month and I’m grateful that I have started. This is the most important way to stay healthy. Staying fit is very important because it makes you feel a lot more better. 




Pay it forward


PAY IT FORWARD

Pay it forward is a movie about a child that helps people and in exchange they have to help others too, they can’t pay it back. The idea is having acts of love and kindness among strangers. That way the world would become a place where we all help each other, a more caring place. It is a beautiful movie with a beautiful message of uninterested actions and love. And although this movie is not based off of real events, it is based on the novel by Catherine Ryan Hyde. And she helped found the PIFF (Pay It Forward Foundation) in 2000.

This foundation was created to inspire growth for the Pay it Forward philosophy, causing a ripple effect from one person to the next. This idea has inspired countless acts of kindness and people all over the world to make it part of their lives. The foundation published the Young Readers Edition of Pay it Forward and this has become a special source for teachers, also motivated parents and students to participate in community service and raising money to support kind acts of the foundation and other organizations. Every day they are seeking new ways to introduce new generations to this idea and share stories. This foundation is now fundraising to bring a new coin program. The coins will increase the rate of kind acts globally and make stories to many more through social media. This is still in process.

Once they raise enough funds to complete the web programming, the coins will be available for purchase. Each coin has a unique code, so all stories related to its kind are shared with everyone. You can set up your own coin profile, so all future holders learn the story behind its purpose. You pass the coin with other people along your act of kindness and all prior members are sent updates each time new stories are available when the coin is passed. You can also watch it travel.

For more info. Visit: https://www.payitforwardfoundation.org/ 

Self-care and sleep


Self-care and sleep

What is Sleep?
Sleep is a state that is characterized by changes in brain wave activity, breathing, heart rate, body temperature, and other physiological functions.
Depending on the sleep stage, different physiological functions may be more active and variable (for example, during REM sleep), or less active and more stable (for example, during NREM sleep).
REM Sleep: happens 90 minutes after you fall asleep and you can have intense dreams since your brain is more active
NREM: It is easy to wake up, your heart rate slows and your body temperature drops. This means that your body is getting ready to sleep. during this stage the body strengthens the immune system, builds muscle and bones, and repairs and grows tissue.

Sleep and Public Safety
Investigators have found that sleep deprivation was an important factor in the nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl in 1986
Scientific research is discovering, how sleep loss, and poor-quality sleep, can lead to errors at the workplace, reduced productivity, and disasters that cost both lives and resources. Awareness can be a key factor to help you recover your sleep habits, your safety and others’ safety.

Sleep and disease risk
Usually people do not think about the cost of poor sleep. It is actually higher than many people think: it may have deep consequences for our long-term health.
Research has discovered that people who regularly fail to get enough sleep have higher chances of getting a chronic disease, and scientists are now beginning to understand why.


Treating sleep as a priority, rather than a luxury, may be an important step in preventing a number of chronic medical conditions.

The Biological Clock
There are two different systems that interact to regulate when we sleep and when we are awake. These systems are the sleep homeostat and wake homeostat. They monitor how much we need to sleep based on how long we have been awake. Then there is also the circadian system which regulates exactly when we sleep and wake every 24 hours.

When to Seek Treatment
Sometimes a change on behavior or your routine is not enough. If you are having a specific problem when sleeping that goes for a long period of time, you should consult it with a sleep specialist. If you are diagnosed with a sleep disorder, it is very important to get treatment since sleep disorders are usually chronic and can lead to other complications.

If you are concerned about your sleep you can take this survey to have an idea of what is going on with your sleep routine: http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/getting/treatment/sleep-disorders-screening-survey

Isabella Mejia