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6 Signs You’re Here to Be a Healer

March 14, 2016 by Power of Positivity

There are many different types of healers among us, and you may be one of those chosen as a healer if you share one or more of these signs.

We believe that you and every other being on this planet are here for a reason. You may not yet know what your reason for being here is, but you absolutely do have a gift to share with the world.

Not recognizing that you are valuable as a person due to your own unique talents and personality is a sign of low self-esteem. A lack of self-love is the root of depression and can also be a source of stress.

It is not egotistical to appreciate your uniqueness and skills. There are numerous ways to use the power of healing to influence the health and well-being of those around you. Healers know and they use that gift by sharing it to improve the lives of others. By the very definition of their gift, healers are generous.

Hats off to healers

Healers come in many different forms. Think beyond traditional medicine when you think about healers. Here are a few possible paths for healers:

Midwife/Doula
Massage therapist
Yoga teacher
Herbalist
Beautician
Mental health professional
Shaman
Lightworker
Chiropractor
Botanist
Nutritionist
Reiki therapist
Physical therapists
Fitness trainers
Veterinarian
Organic farmer
Environmentalist
Animal rights supporter

It is believed that the placebo effect, where patients respond by being healed from a pill with no active ingredients, is simply the effect of spending time with someone who listens and represents themselves as a healer.

Healers are typically available, approachable, have integrity, listen, empathize, ask questions, give time, demonstrate caring, and seek to understand the people that they work with.

If healing is your gift, you have a tremendous talent that will bring well-being to many whose lives you touch. Reading this article could be your first step to learning that healing is your calling.

6 Signs You’re Here to Be a Healer

1. Helping people comes naturally to you

When others are suffering, you recognize it and seek ways to help, without being asked. You might be the only one who notices that facial expression of pain in your friend. Maybe your intuition prompted you to ask your friend what was wrong and they opened up to you about something that was causing them emotional pain.

2. You love connecting to others in meaningful ways

If talking with, touching, teaching, or learning from people makes you happier than anything else, you are meant to be a healer. The joy of connection is one that all healers have in common.

Healers recognize the value of all life. Healers also have tremendous respect for the diversity of opinions, thoughts, and gifts that others have and they love the give and take of meaningful connections.

3. You feel a pull toward something greater than yourself

Your destiny is out there, waiting for you, and you feel a tug directing you. Our article 5 Things That Happen when You’re a Lightworker described some other experiences that healers have had. Some of these experiences reveal that there is more beyond this life here on Earth.

4. You have heightened senses if you are a healer

The sense of intuition, as well as your senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell, are all more developed in yourself compared to others. You are the first one to notice the smell of something burning, the cry of a child, or the slight downturn of your friend’s smile when she says she’s doing fine.

Picking up on the small cues helps a healer to use their gift to identify problems or threats. Sensing these things helps a healer to take action quickly to prevent further harm. Read our article 6 Things Sensitive People Do Differently to learn more about how your sensitivity can help others.

5. The universe is sending you repeated signs that you need to move in the direction of healing

Signs often come when we aren’t seeking them. If you are here to be a healer, you can be sure that the universe has been trying to tell you to get busy and develop your gift.

A dream or a vision may have been sent to you to guide you toward the path of being a healer. You may have had a wonderful experience with a healer yourself and yearned to know what they knew so you could teach others.

Signs can be sounds, sights, experiences, memories, or words on a page that bring up positive emotions in you, like the ones that you are reading now. Listening to the world around you as you sit quietly is the best way to receive the message that the universe is sending you about your calling.

6. You feel like you don’t fit in your current role

People are either givers or takers and if you are in a role where there is a lot of talking, but not much giving, you will feel conflicted. As a healer, your sense of injustice goes off when you feel the balance is too heavily weighted with one side than the other.

15 Secrets to Staying Young at Heart From People Over 100

March 14, 2016 by Power of Positivity

With age often comes wisdom. Centenarians have reached a hundred years of age and have plenty to share in that regard. Consider this: the average life expectancy worldwide is about 70 years old. So, what do those that outlive this statistic by thirty-plus years have to say about staying young?

Well, some of the answers and shared wisdom may surprise you. Not everyone reaches this rare milestone the same way. Some continue habits that many don’t find conducive to living to 100-plus years, while others swear by eating healthy, exercising, and embracing treasured relationships.

Regardless of how these amazing folks have gotten to such a phase in their lives, many have something to say about simple living, being, and enjoying the undeterminable time given to each of us.

“Don’t fight the day, just let it be. Get up and be positive.”– Gussie Levine, 100 years old

Here are 15 shared secrets of staying young from centenarians:

1. “Treat people right and be nice to other people the way you want them to be nice to you.” – Gertrude Weaver, lived to 116 years old

Ms. Weaver lived to be 116 years old, and attributes her long life to simply being kind and loving to others. She sadly passed just five days after becoming the world’s oldest person.

2. “The trick is to not act your age.” – Marvin Kneudson, lived to 101 years old

Mr. Kneudson was indeed a young soul but left a remarkable legacy. He helped develop the community college system across the Midwest.

3. “Attitude, attitude, attitude.” – Trudi Fletcher, 100 years old

A lifelong creator, Ms. Fletcher attributes her longevity to keeping a positive and realistic attitude about life.

4. “I was a good advertisement for the merchandise I selected on my frequent buying trips to New York.” – Lillian Cox, 107 years old

Ms. Cox remains a stylish and trendy woman well into the twilight of her life. She confides that her resolve to eat less simply plays a key role in keeping her healthy and vibrant.

5. “Move it or lose it.” – Louise Calder, 101 years old

This woman is a poster child for exercise. She does 30 minutes of stretching before leaving her bedroom and walks a mile daily.

6. “Perhaps we are here to be an example to others in hard times.” – Robert McRaney, 101 years old

Ms. McRaney is a model of resilience, having rebuilt her home after it was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. She attributes her good fortune to a higher power and a strong will.

7. “Just stay out of trouble.” – Harry Adler, 101 years old

Mr. Adler maintains that doing what we know is right and following one’s conscience in key to living a long life.

8. “A wonderful and loving family, the good Lord and a rum and coke every afternoon.” – Anonymous centenarian

One respondent to a survey to Forbes magazine wished to remain nameless, but left us with a good example of enjoying and appreciating family, faith and guilty pleasures.

9. “I picked the right parents and genes!” – Andy Weinandy, 100 years old

This smart gentleman is simply thankful to his parents and his favorable genes. He has a point: scientists do indeed credit genetics as influencing longevity.

10. “They’re (men) are more trouble than their worth.” – Jessie Gallan, lived to 109 years old

Okay, this may not be a favorite quote for our male readers. Ms. Gallan was an independent woman that never married. She instead devoted her life to getting regular exercise, maintaining a close circle of friends, and working hard.

11. “I’ve never been to a beauty shop and I’ve never been vain.” – Adelina Domingues, lived to 114 years old

Ms. Domingues medical records are nearly empty – she never took any medications, broke a bone, or went to the hospital. Then again, she never drank or smoked…amazing.

12. “I attribute my great longevity to a great extent to walking, not being in the back of the car strapped down.” – George Boggess, 103 years old

Mr. Boggess marched with Martin Luther King Jr. and served on the D.C. Superior Court. Aiming to live to 105 years, he credits his vociferous walking instead of driving as his main health secret.

13. “One, you gotta have good genes. Two, you gotta be damned lucky for 100 years. And three: try not to eat anything that’s healthy. It’s true. I eat whatever I want. The secret to longevity is ice cream.” – Paul Marcus, 101 years old

Remember how we said that not everyone achieves this age using common wisdom? Well, Mr. Marcus is Exhibit A. Good for him.

14. “Health, sleep and relaxation.” – Misao Okawa, lived to 117 years old

Ms. Okawa was not one for words, hence the absence of a quote. However, she credited her long life to a sushi diet, eight hours of sleep, and remembering to relax. A Japanese native throughout her life, her people are notorious for living to old age. Japan is currently the home country to over 50,000 centenarians.

15. “Sleep, bacon, eggs and grits.” – Susannah Mushatt Jones, 116 years old

No quotation is needed. Ms. Jones is one to enjoy food and the simple pleasures of life. She passed away in 2016, shortly before her 117th birthday. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, she was the oldest person alive at her death. She and her family were inseparable. Ms. Jones always credited her healthy life to her family’s love and generosity to others as her reason for staying young at heart.

Here’s How Your Thoughts Affect Your DNA

March 14, 2016 by Power of Positivity

We already know that our brain can affect our health in many ways, but now scientists believe that our thoughts can change our DNA. Thinking stressful thoughts is possibly shortening your lifespan, and researchers can measure that through changes in your DNA.

Certain vital pieces of your DNA tell your body whether that cancer risk from your father’s side of the family will show up as cancer cells in your own body. Developments in research have proven that our experiences in the physical world, like our diet, flexibility, and exercise have an effect on our DNA but how our thoughts influence DNA is just now beginning to be understood.

Here’s How Your Thoughts Affect Your DNA

As you may have read in our article, This ONE Thing Will Help You Live Longer, the growing field of epigenetics is learning that we have some control over which genes will end of being expressed as we age. Here’s an except from that article explaining the important pieces of our DNA that can be affected by our thoughts:

According to Dr. Dave Woynarowski, who spoke in 2011 at The Longevity Now Conference, telomeres are the parts of our DNA that are like a biological time clock that determines how much time you have left to live.

Telomeres are responsible for every cellular mechanism. We can live longer and slow down the aging process by doing 2 things:

1) Slow down the loss of telomeres and

2) Add length to the telomeres

How to add more years to your life with your thoughts

Researchers believe that telomere length is potentially a metaphor for the length of your life. The longer the telomeres, the longer we have left to live. Scientific American explains the important part of our DNA that is affected by thinking in this way:

‘Telomeres are stretches of DNA that cap our chromosomes and help prevent chromosomal deterioration — biology professors often liken them to the plastic tips on shoelaces. Shortened telomeres aren’t known to cause a specific disease per se, but they do wither with age and are shorter in people with cancer, diabetes, heart disease and high stress levels. We want our telomeres intact.’

Mindfulness and meditation are two ways to use thoughts to help keep telomeres intact. A study of breast cancer patients and telomere length found that those who practiced a mindfulness meditation were able to keep the their telomeres longer, while the control group who did not meditate had shorted the telomere end of their DNA.

The researchers believe that processing, rather than repressing, difficult emotions like anger and fear leads to better physical and psychological well-being. Meditation is one way to calm the thoughts and affect our DNA.

The researchers believe that supportive conversations that enable emotional expression are also helpful. Whether you talk to your friends, relatives or a therapist, being able to express your emotions is away to change your thinking about a situation. By discussing problems, we can often see that a solution is available by changing our mindset.

Yoga is another way to keep our DNA molecule length intact. Yoga was part of the mindfulness meditation study as well. Physical movement and awareness of yourself as being physically present in your body is another way to be mindful.

Being present in the moment rather than worrying about the future or being upset about the past can help your DNA to help your body live longer. By changing our thoughts to reframe mistakes as a positive learning experience helps us to focus on what we can do now to improve things.

We can improve our emotions and mood by improving our thoughts and that will in turn help affect our DNA telomeres to stay as long as possible. Avoiding stress and anxiety are important for healthy DNA.

How stressful thoughts affect your DNA

Being mindful helps keep your DNA telomeres long, but the opposite is also true; stress shortens telomeres. In another research study on DNA and negative thoughts, researchers looked at DNA telomere length and stress levels.

The scientists found that ‘Women with the highest levels of perceived stress have telomeres shorter on average by the equivalent of at least one decade of additional aging compared to low stress women. These findings have implications for understanding how, at the cellular level, stress may promote earlier onset of age-related diseases.’

Women who had more stress had shorter life spans as measured by their DNA. For those who are concerned about their well-being and health (ie. longevity, life span) these research results are enough to make you seek out ways to change your thoughts and have a positive impact on your DNA.

Awareness is important to changing thought patterns. Identifying when you are saying negative things about yourself or others is the first step. When you notice it is happening, try to observe yourself. What happened that made you feel that way? Try challenging your thoughts and changing your mind. Changing your thoughts could be the healthiest thing you’ve done for tour DNA lately.

5 Signs You May Need to Quit Dairy Immediately

March 13, 2016 by Chris Butler

Milk. It isn’t doing your body any good, and there are at least five reasons you need to stop eating dairy immediately. Dairy products like cheese, ice cream, butter, and milk are all part of our cultured tastes and the foods we grew up loving.

The USDA says that the average American consumes around 275 pounds of dairy products yearly. All those pounds of creamy dairy may have added some pounds to your body as well.

Although dairy tastes great, the problem is that our physical bodies and digestive systems did not evolve to process dairy products from cows. We evolved as foragers, walking and finding our food from the land in the form of edible roots, plants, fruits, and vegetables. Occasionally our ancestors could catch an animal so they could eat meat.

Dairy products from animals taste great and provide a good source of nutritional calcium. Unfortunately, there are health risks associated with eating dairy.

According to a recent study, calcium sources from products that are non-dairy would be better for our health; ‘Bones are better served by attending to calcium balance and focusing efforts on increasing fruit and vegetable intakes, limiting animal protein, exercising regularly, getting adequate sunshine or supplemental vitamin D, and getting 500 mg Ca/d [calcium per day] from plant sources. Therefore, dairy products should not part of a healthy vegetarian diet.’

The high-fat content of many dairy products can lead to problems with obesity. Saturated fat has also been associated with a higher risk for arterial disease like stroke and heart disease. Still not convinced? Here are five signs that your body wants you to stop eating dairy immediately.

5 Signs You May Want to Stop Eating Dairy Immediately

1. You may want to stop eating dairy immediately if you have problems with inflammation

Galactose is a simple sugar in milk that researchers believe reacts in the body similarly to fructose, which can cause inflammation and myriad other issues.

Inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, eczema, or colitis could directly affect your dairy intake. The good news is that a simple dietary change can fix the problem.

2. You may want to stop eating dairy immediately if you have allergy symptoms

Just like any seasonal allergy you might have, your body’s immune system kicks in to fight off the intruding allergen.

If you have the following symptoms and you eat dairy regularly, it’s a sign you could have a dairy allergy:

Sensitive skin
Itchy skin
Acne
Red, blotchy skin, especially on the face
Sinus and nasal congestion
Tickling cough
Coughing up phlegm
Itching of the tongue, lips, gums, or throat

3. You may want to stop eating dairy immediately if you have digestive problems

Gas, stomach discomfort, and diarrhea are all uncomfortable signs of lactose intolerance. Lactose intolerance is fairly common in the global population. After we finish with our mother’s breast milk, our ability to digest lactose decreases as we age.

Researchers in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition says ‘Mammalian infants need mother’s milk for nourishment and growth. However, milk is not necessary for humans after the age of weaning, as evidenced in part by the physiologic decrease in and often loss of the ability to digest lactose (milk sugar) for roughly three-fourths of the world’s population.’

4. You may want to stop eating dairy immediately if you have a genetic risk of breast or prostate cancer

Unfortunately, hormone-treated cows pass on hormones through their milk to humans. Hormones in milk can affect both the male and female risks for cancers. In women, ovarian cancer risk is higher among those who consume milk with hormones, and in men, the risk for prostate cancer goes up with milk consumption.

A family genetic risk for cancers means you could also have that risk. If your parents, siblings or other family members have breast or prostate cancer, you have one more reason to stop eating dairy immediately.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine cites 7 different studies linking milk products to prostate cancer.

5. You may want to stop eating dairy if you have a risk of diabetes

The lactose in milk is a naturally occurring sugar that can be dangerous for diabetics. Researchers in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition say, ‘The American Academy of Pediatrics warned against early introduction of cow milk because of the relation between milk consumption and type 1 diabetes in children.’ These negative health effects continue into adulthood.

There are other reasons to stop drinking milk that doesn’t concern your physical health – for example – the dairy production industry and its impact on the environment due to the use of pesticides, animal waste production, and the impact on global warming. Also concerning to most vegans is the welfare and treatment of animals in the dairy industry.

Final Thoughts on Understanding the Signs That Dairy Foods Do Not Agree With Your Body

If you aren’t ready to stop drinking milk or eating dairy products immediately, try limiting yourself to occasional tastes of excellent savory cheese, hormone-free milk as a cream for coffee or tea only, and grass-fed locally-sourced butter.

You have a choice regarding your health and what is best for you. Feed your body with the best nutrition, and you will always support your health. If you choose to keep dairy in your diet, it is always best to buy organic, grass-fed, free-range, additive-free, and hormone-free dairy products.

10 Signs You Have A Lectin Sensitivity

March 13, 2016 by Power of Positivity

Avoiding foods that you have a sensitivity to isn’t always easy, because some of the basic proteins of healthy plant foods, like lectin, can also cause health problems.

Knowing the symptoms of lectin sensitivity is important as well as knowing which foods have the most amounts of this protein. Your individual genetics may also mean that you have a different level of tolerance for lectin. You may have a sensitivity, for example, but your siblings may not.

The good news is that modern crops that contain lectin contain less of the anti-nutrient lectin. Even if you have a lectin sensitivity, cooking lectin-containing foods may provide better nutrient absorption than raw grains and legumes. If you are not able to tolerate lectin, as a last resort, you can avoid lectin completely.

10 Signs You Have a Lectin Sensitivity

Previously we talked about gluten sensitivity in our article 10 Signs You Should Stop Eating Gluten Immediately. Lectin is very similar to gluten in that it is an anti-nutrient. Anti-nutrients form naturally in plants and grains and when we consume them, they interfere with the absorption of other nutrients in our bodies.

Most people know someone with a sensitivity to gluten. Gluten can cause digestive intolerance symptoms in many people and lectins can do the same thing. The problem with lectins is that they don’t want to be digested.

Plants developed their anti-nutrient parts to protect their seeds from being digested by birds and animals. Lectin is important to the plant seed because it can protect the entire seed from being digested, and allow it to pass through the intestines as waste. One it exits, the seed may have survived to grow and become a new plant.

Lectin is believed to worsen autoimmune disease in people who have lectin sensitivity. Lectin is so resistant to being digested that it can cross over into the circulation system where it can cause damage to cells.

The immune system responds to lectin by producing antibodies. A blood test for lectin antibodies may be the best way to find out if you have a lectin sensitivity. Talk to your health care professional if you are having any of the following symptoms.

1. Leaky gut

Dr. Mercola says ‘All grains contain glutinous proteins known as prolamines that can be very “binding,” as they are pasty substances our bodies were just not designed to breakdown correctly.’

‘Substances in grains, including gliadin and lectins, may increase intestinal permeability or leaky gut syndrome. Leaky gut can cause digestive symptoms such as bloating, gas, and abdominal cramps.’

2. Fatigue

Lectin is associated with chronic fatigue syndrome in some people. The good news is that a dietary change could help resolve your tiredness problem and help you find your lost energy.

3. Mental health problems

A study of indigenous cultures with no access to wheat, which contains the anti-nutrient lectin, as compared to cultures that use wheat frequently found that ‘grain glutens are harmful to schizophrenics.” The study authors don’t imply that grains cause the mental illness schizophrenia but that lectin and gluten could trigger an autoimmune response in the body that is like a chemically induced mental illness.

Wheat products can also reduce the amount of the mood hormone serotonin, which can lead to depressed mood and symptoms of depression. This doesn’t mean that removing lectin from the diet could help cure mental illness but it might improve overall mood balance.

4. Skin rashes

Lectin sensitivity might show up externally in dry, itchy, flaky skin. Redness and itchiness are often the first signs of a problem.

5. Joint pain

This protein may aggravate inflammation or rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Painful, swollen joints can be a serious health impact due to your decreased desire to exercise as a result of pain.

6. Allergies

Lectin sensitivity can show up as an allergic response. You may notice watery eyes, sniffling or sinus congestion, tightness in the throat, and itchy skin, mouth or tongue.

7. Nausea

Similar to the effect that gluten sensitivity has on your body, this sensitivity is not good for your appetite. Your body knows what is good for it and what is not and you may notice feeling nauseous when you are about to eat a food that contains lectin if your body has had a bad reaction to it before. Read our article, Love Your Gut – 3 Ways to Improve Digestive Health for more information.

8. Muscle weakness

Due to a lack of vitamin B12 absorption by the intestines, muscle weakness is likely. Not having good muscle strength can also lead to problems with balance and gait.

9. Numbness

The sensation of extremities falling asleep could be due to a lack of nutrients like B12 that are passed through the digestive system rather than being absorbed.

10. Susceptibility to illness

Getting sick more often could be due to having lectin sensitivity. If your immune system is already busy fighting off irritants, it has fewer resources to devote to fighting off bacteria as they enter your body.

Talk to your healthcare professional if you suspect a sensitivity problem. You can also begin restricting your diet to eliminate individual grains, nuts, beans, tomatoes, melon, squash, dairy, eggs, and all forms of potatoes if you would like to take control of your own health now.

4 Sacred Crystals That Relieve Anxiety

March 12, 2016 by Power of Positivity

If you have been a long-time sufferer of anxiety, then you know exactly how much it can prevent you from living a normal, happy life. Anxiety can completely debilitate the sufferer, as the physical and mental symptoms associated with it can interfere with many aspects of daily life. Anxiety comes in many different forms, but most people who have it moderately or severely report similar symptoms – fast heartbeat, nervous sweat, a feeling of uneasiness, shaky or weak legs, and just an overall feeling of total panic and fear.

Unfortunately, anxiety disorders affect 18% of the population in the U.S., or 40 million adults age 18 or older. Anxiety disorders are the number one mental illness in America, and people spend billions per year on treatment.

Some people prefer over-the-counter prescription medicines, and others would rather turn to natural remedies first for some relief from their anxiety. People use countless methods to treat their anxiety, from taking salt baths to meditation to yoga to eating holistically, to prayer to listening to hypnosis tapes, and more. However, did you know that certain crystals can help to relieve anxiety?

Depending on the crystal, it can help to balance the energy of a person, and even an entire room, by taking away any negative energy present. Because all mental, physical, and spiritual dis-ease in the world occurs due to an imbalance of energies, healing crystals can help to restore that balance and alignment to the body.

If you suffer from anxiety and have grown tired of all the treatments you have tried thus far, you might consider using crystals instead to heal.

Here are 4 sacred crystals that relieve anxiety:

1. Blue Lace Agate

This beautiful crystal helps to promote peace and happiness, and ward off stress and anxiety. It radiates calmness and tranquility, and aids in balancing the energy of the wearer. The stone itself looks as the name would suggest, with lines of grey or blue running across it; this pattern greatly resembles the rise and fall of ocean waves, which further adds to the stones’ powerful calming energy.

The agate works to strengthen and stabilize the energy of the wearer, and also aids in opening the throat chakra for better communication and articulation of thoughts into words. For people with social phobias and a shy personality, this can do wonders to help you become more assertive and leave your fears about speaking up behind.

2. Jet Stone

Jet stones are actually fossilized and metamorphosed driftwood. They have a black color and appear very polished and smooth. To the naked eye, you probably couldn’t tell that the jet stone came from fossilized wood – but under a microscope, you’d easily be able to spot this.

Jet stone has been used since ancient times to relieve anxiety and depression – it carries with it an energy of great strength and protection to those who wear it. It is also used to prevent psychic attacks and remove negative energies from your aura that have been placed there by other people. The jet stone can additionally be used to help the wearer deal with grief, which can also cause anxiety.

3. Shungite

Shungite is a dark, metallic-looking stone that people in Russia have used for purposes of water purification. Shungite can therefore help to detoxify the human body and restore energetic balances by removing negative energies within.

This crystal can help with anxiety by absorbing negative energy from electronics, called EMFs. These incredibly harmful waves of energy emitted by mobile phones and other electronics can wreak havoc on the body, and increase anxiety exponentially. Therefore, shungite can help tremendously in relieving anxiety.

4. Hematite

This magnetic, metallic stone looks quite mysterious at first glance, but you will quickly discover its benefits after you wear it for a while. It is associated with grounding and healing energies, helping to connect the wearer with the Earth. Due to this, it can easily remove excess anxiety and stress from the body. This grounding energy allows us to feel safe, secure, and strong, and will keep anxiety at bay.

While you can use these four crystals to combat anxiety, you can choose from many others to help you heal, as well.

If you’d like to learn more about how to use crystals to relieve anxiety, watch the video below!

5 Bad Things In Life That Can Put You Directly On The Path to The Best Things

March 12, 2016 by Power of Positivity

If you’ve lived on this planet for any time at all, then you’ve experienced both facets of life, on the good and bad ends of the spectrum. Life can sometimes seem overwhelming, and when we hit obstacles and fall down a seemingly neverending black hole, it feels like we’ve hit rock bottom. However, did you ever think about the possible benefits of hitting a dead end? What if we could pull something positive from these experiences? The following experiences are definitely not the most pleasant to deal with in the moment, but they have hidden lessons if you dig just a bit deeper.

Here are 5 bad things in life that can put you directly on the path to the best things:

1. Losing your job

Sure, hearing those two words from your boss – “You’re fired” – never feels good. It hurts your ego to get terminated from a job, not to mention, it hurts your bank account. However, maybe that just means that you have been needing a different job better tailored to your interests and skills. Maybe the job you had wasn’t right for you all along.

Losing a job gives you the opportunity to go out and look for something else that excites you, something where the people appreciate your hard work and value you in the company. Or, maybe you’d like to try self-employment and run your own business. People think losing their job is the end of the world, but it isn’t – it’s just the end of one chapter. You get to consciously create the rest, so don’t allow one roadblock to stop you from living out the rest of your journey.

2. Ending a relationship

Probably even worse than losing a job is the feeling you get after you lose someone you really love. You go through the stages of sadness, anger, frustration, denial, and acceptance. You lose sleep, lose your appetite. And you wish things had just gone differently. You wish you had said something different, done something more to save the relationship…but don’t mull over what you could’ve done. Obviously, you came into each other’s lives for a reason, and you left for a reason.

Some people just aren’t meant to stick around with us forever, but we can appreciate their company while we have it, and focus on what we learned from them. If your relationship ends, this gives you the chance to rediscover yourself, mingle with new people, and enjoy freedom for a while.

It might feel like you have a black cloud over you if you’re freshly single, but it will pass. Focus on getting to know yourself again, and getting involved in activities that light up your soul.

3. Getting betrayed by “friends”

If you had a group of friends that didn’t stay by your side when you truly needed them, then they weren’t really friends in the first place. It’s painful to get burned by people we thought cared about us, and when it happens, the world just looks a bit darker, and we start to trust people less. We start to close ourselves off from new relationships and meeting new people.

However, don’t let your heart grow cold just because of a few people. Pick yourself up and focus on meeting new friends you know will have your back. Of course, you can’t ever really know for sure what kind of friends you have until you really need them, but in general, following your heart and trusting your intuition will allow you to manifest the right friendships and meet kindhearted, genuine people.

4. Being told you aren’t good enough

How many times have you been told this in your life? How many times have you let it get to you? If people can’t see our worth, then it isn’t our problem. The only person’s opinion that matters is your own. If you value yourself and know your own capabilities and potential, then it doesn’t matter what others have to say.

When people try to bring you down, this just gives you more of an opportunity to build up self-love and self-confidence and remind yourself why you’re an amazing, valuable person in this world.

5. Getting rejected

This could apply to many things – rejection from a love interest, a friend, a boss, a college, or even family – however, it all hurts the same way. We naturally want to feel loved and accepted, so when someone rejects us, our ego takes a blow. We want to crawl in a hole and forget about the whole experience, but to grow from it, we must examine things more closely and see what lessons might be hiding underneath the surface.

For one, rejection can teach us to love ourselves more. Where you don’t get love or acceptance from others, you can give it to yourself. For another, rejection can show us that other people’s opinions don’t hold as much weight as we might’ve previously thought. If someone doesn’t like you or agree with you, does that really matter? Does it affect your life or your own self-worth in any way? At the end of the day, we have ourselves and our own self-image. If those are intact, nothing else can affect us, and the negatives in life can easily turn into positives.

This 5 Minute Hand Exercise You Can Do With Just Your Hands Relieves Health and Emotional Issues

March 11, 2016 by Power of Positivity

We’ve shared many self-healing techniques. But this ancient Japanese therapy is so easy that you could do it while speaking to a group of people, and no one would know you were trying to relieve anxiety.

Many healing systems have shared beliefs about the body’s energy being important for curing illness. Hindu, Asian, Greek, Native American, Tibetan and Mediterranean healing wisdom all believe in a life energy force that we must balance and harmonize for well-being.

This ancient Japanese technique employs a similar technique we have written about previously; acupressure. This method that we will describe today is easier and shorter. Still, it can be just as effective in only two to five minutes at a time.

An earlier feature article on tapping that shares the self-healing technique of tapping to activate energy points on the body. You may have also read Here’s What Happens When You Touch These Points on Your Hands, which told you about another self-acupressure technique.

This Ancient Japanese Technique Relieves Anxiety and Depression

This ancient Japanese healing technique is helping nurses

Nursing is a high-stress job due to the demands of their employers, doctors that they work with, patients, and demanding family members of patients. Researchers taught this acupressure technique to nurses and measured their stress levels before and after one month of daily practice.

They found that the nurses in the study had ‘significant increases in positive outlook, gratitude, motivation, calmness, and communication effectiveness and significant decreases in anger, resentfulness, depression, stress symptoms, time pressure, and morale issues. Nurses reported less muscle aches, sleeplessness, and headaches.’

The treatment not only helped the nurses’ feelings of stress but helped their ability to care for patients. Researchers found ‘significant increases in nurses’ caring efficacy in areas of serenity in giving care, tuning in to patients, relating to patients, providing culturally congruent care, individualization of patient care, ability to decrease stressful situations, planning for multiple needs, and creativity in care.’

How to perform this ancient Japanese healing technique on yourself

Children often self-soothe by sucking their thumbs or fingers. People sometimes rub or clasp their hands when they are nervous. Both of these self-healing actions use hand and finger pressure, which stimulates the energy meridians that are important in acupressure therapy.

The video link will explain the technique that you will be using. You will be grasping a different finger of either hand depending on what emotions that you are working on improving.

Jin Shin Jyutsu is an ancient Japanese energy healing technique that you can use anytime you have both hands free. You can also teach this to children to manage their own emotional states.

Guess which finger is associated with anger? That’s right the middle finger. Starting with the thumb, the fingers of each hand represent the following emotions in order:

Worry
Fear
Anger
Sadness
Self-Esteem

Grasp the finger of either hand with firm pressure, using all of the fingers and thumb of your other hand. Wait until you feel a pulse. You will know it is working when you feel the pulse. Most of our fingers do not have a pulse that is strong enough for us to feel, except for the thumb.

The technique should take only 2-5 minutes of firm pressure on the finger before you feel a pulse. If you feel a pulse immediately, hold the finger until the pulse slows down. This ancient technique is a great tool to use the next time you are feeling anxiety or depression.

How this ancient Japanese technique is even helping people with cancer

No matter what stress you are going through in your life now, you can imagine that a cancer diagnosis must be one of the most anxious moments for a person to encounter. Cancer patients have uncertainty, fear, and sadness over being unable to do things they would be doing if they were not going through cancer treatment.

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, tried this ancient Japanese technique as a way of healing the stress, anxiety, and depression of women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer. After ten sessions of acupressure given by a trained practitioner, the women in the study could feel better physically, and emotionally, reported living fuller lives, and were seeking balance in daily living.

Patients were also taught how to do the technique during the treatment sessions. It is important to note that these women were told to practice daily. That’s because the effects of this ancient technique are believed to be cumulative. In other words, the more you use it, the better it works.

One woman said that this Ancient Japanese healing technique ‘helped me heal from surgery and then with the side effects of chemotherapy: fatigue, nausea and sleep disruption. I would go in feeling very low and come out rejuvenated and able to cope with whatever the next week of the illness had to throw at me. At a time when my resources were dwindling, you can’t imagine what a gift this was to have 10 free sessions.’

Here’s What Happens to Your Body When You Eat One Avocado A Day

March 11, 2016 by Power of Positivity

“Avocado offers nearly 20 vitamins and minerals in every serving, including potassium, lutein and folate.” – WebMD

Few foods pack a heavier nutritional punch than avocado. Consider that an average avocado contains nearly 1000 mg of potassium (twice as much as a banana), almost 20 essential vitamins and minerals, and 18 amino acids. That’s quite incredible for food just slightly larger than a pear.

What happens to our body when we eat avocado makes it truly unique. The fruit (yes, it is a fruit) helps control blood pressure, maintain eye health and repair cells. As a dense source of B vitamins, they also strengthen the immune system and fight off disease and infection. Plentiful C and E vitamins give avocado their cancer-fighting properties.

Some people will stay away from avocado due to its high-fat content, but this position isn’t logically sound. Avocado does contain significant amounts of fat, but it’s of the healthy fat variety. Monounsaturated fat is beneficial in helping to reduce bad cholesterol levels, which is important in maintaining heart health. Trans and saturated fats are the types that should be strictly limited.

Here’s what happens to your body when you eat one avocado a day:

Avocado also has satiety-producing effects, meaning that we feel fuller more quickly. Any food that is delicious, healthy, and curbs our hunger (as opposed to reaching for more) is rare, and that’s exactly what avocado does. This effect is attributed to the fruit’s healthy fat content, stabilizing insulin and glucose levels while stimulating our metabolism. The cumulative effect is that avocado can aid in weight loss.

Eye health benefits of avocados are achieved through the minerals lutein and zeaxanthin. These nutrients help to improve vision and protect against eye disease macular degeneration. All told, avocados are a terrific food for preventing eye disorders.

Avocado is a rare fruit with a good amount of protein. An average-sized avocado contains approximately four grams of protein, among the highest amount of any food in its class. The protein in an avocado is also high-quality and immediately available, which is not the case for many meat-based protein sources. The protein derived from avocado helps us to: maintain and build muscle, keep our skin healthy, and keep our bones, blood and cartilage healthy.

At 10 grams a serving, avocados are very high in fiber, particularly of the dietary, insoluble type. This type of fiber aids digestive health and bowel regularity. Insoluble fiber does not dissolve water (hence “insoluble”), which means it’s more efficient in moving material through the digestive tract than soluble fiber. Insoluble fiber, such as that found in avocados, can help protect colon health and reduce inflammation. Further, avocado fiber helps regulate blood sugar and cholesterol levels.

The benefits mentioned above only begin to scratch the surface of avocado’s benefits to our health. Almost important as what avocado contains is what it does not. The fruit is low in refined carbohydrates (the fat-producing variety), sugar and sodium.

Here are some additional, less-known health benefits of avocados:

– Helps nutrient absorption.

Due to its rich fat content, avocado helps absorb soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K. When eating with other foods, avocado’s absorption properties ensure that our bodies get the maximum amounts of vitamins and minerals and nutrients derived from those foods.

– Helps ease arthritis symptoms

Avocados contain omega 3 fatty acids, carotenoid antioxidants and phytosterols, all of which help reduce inflammation. These properties are particularly helpful to individuals suffering from arthritis and osteoarthritis pain.

– Reduces the risk of certain cancers

Because of its potent mix of anti-inflammatory and antioxidant agents, avocados can effectively decrease the risk of certain cancer types. The journal Seminars in Cancer Biology published a study in 2007 which discovered that phytochemicals in avocados can inhibit the growth and proliferation of precancerous and cancerous cellular bodies.

– Promotes heart health

The combination of mono- and polyunsaturated fats in avocados helps to reduce the body’s level of cholesterol. In addition, high levels of the B6 vitamin and folic acid regulates homocysteine, which creates a cumulative and interactive effect with an avocado’s healthy fat content. The result is the reduced risk of metabolic syndrome – symptoms that increase the risk of diabetes, stroke and coronary artery disease.

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