Basic Health Habit No. 7: Sweating

Sweating, Steam Baths,
 and the Positive Effects 
of Negative Ions

Unlike the Finnish dry sauna which is 140-212 degrees fahrenheit, the Islamic Hammam is 110-116 degrees fahrenheit with 100%, steam-generated humidity. In the steam bath, heat sensitive nerve endings produce acetylcholine, a chemical which alerts the 3 million sweat glands to respond to the heat. In 15 minutes in a steam bath the body sweats a litre of water and can perform the same amount of heavy metal (copper, lead, zinc, mercury) excretion that would take the kidneys 24 working hours. Excessive salts are excreted as well, helping hypertension. Urea, a metabolic by-product which can cause headaches and nausea, arthritis and inflammation, is excreted along with sweat. 

The steam bath helps to relax muscle tension and ease restricted, painful joints. Insensible perspiration originating internally, works its way through cells and blood to the surface. Capillaries dilate in the heat of the steam bath, permitting increased blood flow to the skin, and the heart rate increases with the additional demand for blood. The liver, kidneys, stomach, muscles, brain, and most other organs are flushed of impurities with increased fluid flow and an increase in metabolic rate. 

The steam bath can be used to supplement the function of dialysis. The rapid flexing of the heart and blood vessels is a form of healthy exercise and increased capillary volume keeps blood pressure normal and even reduces it in those suffering from high blood pressure. Damaged cells repair faster due to increased metabolic rate and recovery from illness comes easier and quicker. A well-tuned body is more resistant to colds, flus, disease and infection. Oxygen needs and supply increase by 20% and the lungs, another eliminator of body wastes join the quickened pace of the body. The steam bath is beneficial for respiratory ailments such as asthma and bronchitis.

An internal temperature rise affects endocrine glands, particularly the pituitary whose hormones regulate metabolism, and the activity of other glands such as the thyroid, adrenal, ovaries and testes. Heat accelerates pituitary activity and affects hormone interplay.

Raising the body temperature 1 degree above the normal temperature of 98.6 degrees F (37 degrees C) creates a hostile environment for bacteria and viruses. In the steam bath the surface temperature of skin rises as much as 10 degrees C and the internal body temperature increases 3 degrees C. This is the artificial fever state that Hippocrates wrote about as being beneficial for disease-free good health.

Because the mammary gland is a modified sweat gland, it is believed that the sauna and steam bath helps in the production of milk.

Hyperthermic conditioning of the body to heat stress through sauna and steam bath use has also been shown to promote neurogenesis, along with increased physical endurance, and muscle mass.

Combined with special olive oil and herbal soaps and herbal mud treatments, the brushing, massaging and stretching that is a part of the Hammam ritual as well as the sweating in the steam bath are all especially beneficial for skin; removing dead skin that can clog pores and oil gland passages, improving circulation and rejuvenating the skin. Sweating in the steam bath can help to keep you cool in hot climates but don't forget to rehydrate and to replenish lost electrolytes!

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Basic Health Habit No.3: Hydration

From ancient times the steam bath has always been an important social aspect of the community. The Greek Laconicum was always adjacent to the gymnasium and sports arena and also provided a forum for contemplative discourse amongst intellectuals and politicians and were as ubiquitous as movie theatres and gas stations are today. The Roman baths also named Thermae and Balneums often housed places to rest, as well as libraries and restaurants. 

By Islamic law, every city had to have their proper proportion of Hammams as well as a bakery, mosque, madersa or school, and water fountains. The Hammam offered the rare occasion for women to socialize. 

The Canadian First Nations' sweat lodge is an important part of their spiritual rituals, personal development, and creation stories.

The steam bath helps to create a healthy relationship with our own bodies, and with other people. 

The Positive Effects of Negative Ions

The presence of negative ions plays a key role in body function and consequently how we feel. Molecules have negative and positive electrical charges. Ionization occurs when energy acts on a molecule which then discharges an electron (negative charge), the molecule with the lost electron then becomes a positive ion. The circulating electron then attaches to another molecule making it a negative ion. Plants create negative ions during photosynthesis and they are also created by fire, crashing water (waterfalls, surf), and in the release of steam in a steam bath or when water is thrown onto a heat source in a sauna.

Too many positive ions in the air that we breathe cause anxiety, fatigue and tension, such as in artificially heated and cooled indoor environments, by weather disturbances, air pollution or when driving too long in the confines of a car. Positive ion poisoning has been linked to heart attacks, aggravated asthma, migraine headaches, insomnia, rheumatism, arthritis, hay fever and to most allergies.

Negative ion therapy is used to treat burn victims to help prevent infection and to increase healing; cure respiratory diseases, rid the body of general infection, and to discourage the spread of cancer.

A Story with a Happy Ending

sweating saved my life

When I was in my mid to late thirties, it was a terribly stressful time of turmoil and as a result, hormonal upheaval. I tried everything to get myself back in balance. Lifestyle change and reduction of stress. I educated myself about hormonal health. I spent time in nature. Medication and synthetic hormones aggravated the condition. Dietary changes and many different types and intensities of exercise and natural hormone replacement were more effective. Personal growth and perspective. Staring fear in the face and taking responsibility for myself were smart developments.

But the thing that really pushed me around the corner to recover from such a great imbalance in my health was Hot Bikram Yoga. It was the benefits of sweating that literally saved my life and put my body functions back in working order. It would also be my primary choice of remedy for peri-menopausal difficulties or any illness. So impressed was my Physician with my miraculous recovery that she went on to recommend Hot Yoga to all her female patients suffering from hormonal imbalances.

Basic Health Habit No. 7: Sweating

Sweating is as essential to our health as eating and breathing. Sweating helps to regulate our critical body temperature, cleanses the skin, and helps to rid our body of waste and toxic material. 

Death by accumulated poisons occurs in a matter of hours if sweat gland activity is blocked. Properly cared for skin is better able to resist infection, protect our body, and regulate body temperature.

Sweating is a Basic Health Habit.

The skin is our largest organ and is often called the third kidney because of its important role in elimination. It is more complex than the kidneys or any other organ, except the brain.

Antiperspirants, artificial environments, pollution, inactivity, diet, stress, synthetic clothing, and poor skin hygiene to remove dirt, dead skin, oil, and sweat secretions, affect skin health, and the healthy function of sweating.

Water loss is always accompanied by electrolyte loss. Both are critical for proper hydration. For helpful information please visit: HEALTH COACH Basic Health Habit No. 3: Hydration

Sweat contains mostly water derived from blood plasma along with electrolytes and urea and may also contain lactic acid and other wastes and toxic material. As well as regulating body temperature and excretion, sweating gives us protection from environmental hazards by diluting harmful chemicals and discouraging the growth of infectious microorganisms. 

Sweat is odourless. It is the contact with bacteria which causes odour and this is influenced by the 13 Basic Health Habits, including hygiene, and diet; medications; health complications, and gender.

Excessive sweating, called hyperhidrosis, is affected by poor Basic Health Habits, systemic illness, medications, infection, fever, stress, high emotional states, poor physical fitness, hot climate, hot internal environments, alcohol, diabetes, insulin, synthetic chemicals, refined sugar, hormonal imbalance, unhealthy menopause, lymphoma, thyroid disease, nervous system or hypothalamic disorders, Parkinson's disease, adrenal or pituitary tumours, tuberculosis, or drug withdrawal.

SEM (Scanning Electron Micrograph) 

of a human sweat pore, 

opening onto the surface of human skin

The Skin and Sweat Glands

Our skin is an anatomical barrier that protects us from pathogens and damage. It is an ecosystem of cells which are a part of our adaptive immune system and a balance of millions of bacterial floral microorganisms needed for health. It contains cells for pigmentation, blood, and lymph vessels, hair follicles, sebaceous oil glands, and tubular coiled sweat glands. It has a variety of nerve endings which react to heat and cold, touch, pressure, and injury. 

Skin is an important part of temperature regulation with a blood supply that allows precise control of energy loss by radiation, convection, and conduction. Our skin is a semipermeable barrier and controls the evaporation of fluid. Loss of this function contributes to massive fluid loss, such as in the case of severe burns. 

Our skin is also water resistant and acts as a barrier so that essential nutrients aren't washed out of the body.  It is an important storage area for lipids and water and for the synthesis of vitamin D. Aesthetically, others see our skin and assess our mood, physical state and attractiveness.

click to expand

Epidermis   
Is the outer layer of skin and does not contain blood vessels but is nourished by capillaries in the upper layers of the dermis. Layers (strata) of cells are formed and move up the strata, changing shape and composition, a process that takes weeks to occur. The epidermis has 25 - 30 layers of dead skin.

Dermis  

Lies beneath the epidermis and consists of connective tissue that supports and cushions the body from stress and strain. It has a rich supply of blood and lymphatic vessels, nerve endings, hair follicles and sweat and oil glands. It is here that a pattern of ridges forms finger prints that make us genetically unique and this is where tattoo ink is held and stretch marks form. Collagen, elastin and protein fibers give strength, extensibility and elastic integrity to our skin. The hyperdermis is the subcutaneous tissue that attaches the skin to muscle and bone and contains 50% of the body's fat.

Sweat Glands

We have two types of sweat glands located in the dermal layer of the skin. Apocrine sweat glands  are more superficial (closer to the surface), respond to emotional stimulus and are located in the groin and around the nipples and secrete into hair follicles. Apocrine sweat gland activity starts at puberty and contains pheromones which are chemicals that respond to and communicate information to other individuals. These glands are controlled by the Autonomic Nervous System and by circulating hormones.

Merocrine, also known as Eccrine sweat glands, are more numerous, smaller and more widespread than apocrine sweat glands. We have 2.6-3 million eccrine sweat glands and they do not extend as far into the dermis as the apocrine glands and they discharge directly onto the surface of the skin through pores. We have the highest number on the palms of our hands and the soles of our feet to cause friction and to give us grip. Body heat stimulates the part of the brain called the hypothalamus which controls body temperature and is located above the brain stem. The hypothalamus connects the nervous system to the endocrine system via the pituitary gland and neural and hormonal responses stimulate eccrine sweat gland activity.

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Basic Health Habit No. 11: Hygiene

for more information

DO YOU KNOW? 

Antiperspirants work by clogging, closing, or blocking the pores with powerful astringents such as aluminum salts so that they can't release sweat. (Note that aluminum can accumulate in the brain.) Deodorants work by neutralizing the smell of the sweat and by antiseptic action against bacteria.

Heat rash is caused by exposure to extreme heat and humidity and sweat being trapped beneath the skin where small blisters form on the neck, upper chest, groin, elbow crease and under breasts. Excessive sweating, poor health, age (elderly-impaired sweat glands, children 0-4-undeveloped sweat glands), dehydration, alcohol use, certain medications and skin health can be factors that contribute to heat rash There is an increased risk of heat exhaustion due to the blockage of sweat. Heat rash is best treated with a cool, dry environment and avoiding smothering with creams or lotions. 

Iontophoresis is a process of transdermal drug delivery by use of a voltage gradient on the skin. Molecules are transported across the stratum corneum by electrophoresis and electroosmosis and the electric field can also increase the permeability of the skin. These phenomena, directly and indirectly, constitute active transport of matter due to an applied electric current. In testing and research, sweating is stimulated using pilocarpine nitrate.

Perimenopausal Hot Flashes
Most women will get hot flashes or night sweats at some point in life. However, when these symptoms occur and how long they last can vary dramatically among women. New findings show that women fit into four distinct groups when it comes to getting hot flashes and night sweats

• A consistently low chance of having symptoms throughout the menopause transition was more common in Chinese women.
• A consistently high chance of having symptoms throughout the transition was more common in black women, those with less education, those who reported drinking alcohol moderately or heavily, and those who reported symptoms of depression or anxiety.
• An early onset of symptoms in the decade before the final period with cessation thereafter was more common among women who were obese, had symptoms of depression or anxiety, were in poorer health than their peers and at an older age at menopause.
• A late onset of symptoms after the final period that gradually declined in the following decade was more common in women with a lower body mass index (ratio of weight to height), those who smoke, and black women.

Essential nutrients are nutrients that the body cannot synthesize by itself but is dependent on our diet to supply.

Vitamin A-beta-carotene, B complex, C, D, E and Selenium, Zinc and Silica for the growth and repair of tissue are essential for skin health and help prevent skin cancer. Cysteine and Methionine are sulphur-containing essential amino acids, and antioxidants, facilitating the removal of heavy metals from the body. Lipoic acid, a heavy metal chelator, and Conenzyme Q10 are needed for normal cell function and are antioxidants. A natural whole food diet will supply these nutrients in abundance. For More Information: Health Coach Nutrition Part 1-3

New advances in Nanomedicine, using the skin for medical applications, use nano diamonds for UV radiation protection, and tape stripping, abrasion, chemical enhancement, and electroporation involving high voltage electrical impulses to achieve increased permeability of the skin for transdermal drug delivery.

Sunblock is opaque and stronger than sunscreen and is able to block the majority of UVA/ UVB rays and radiation from sunlight. The active ingredients are primarily titanium dioxide and zinc oxide.

Sunscreen is transparent and breaks down at a faster rate than sunblock once it is exposed to sunlight and requires reapplication and a higher SPF. It protects from most UVA/ UVB rays but some radiation can penetrate through sunscreen.

McClintock Effect  Apocrine sweat gland secretions of women can alter the menstrual timing of other women.

Tattooed skin generates less sweat and a higher Na+ (sodium) concentration than non-tattooed skin.

LINK: click to read infograph

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HAMMAM MAROC

Hammam - Health Spa - Mediterranean Bistro

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And now let's visit Morocco...

                     


               

HEALTH COACH TALKS 
with
Maryam Montague

Peacock Pavilions   
Marrakesh, Morocco

Maryam: Thanks so much for asking me to be a part of your series. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle has been critical to my wellbeing! Now onto your questions... 

1. Health Coach would like to know if your lifestyle there in Morocco is different than your lifestyle in North America was? Would you tell us a bit about what those differences are? In your opinion, is the Moroccan lifestyle healthier? Now, I know that your life is very busy and demanding because you are a very happening woman, but is the stress different in any way?

I think Moroccans have a very different approach to living than North Americans do. Time has a different quality and there is less feeling of urgency (and demands for efficiency). In general, I find that people tend to work less (although sometimes over 6 days rather than 5 days), spending more time shopping for food (daily trips to the Souk for fresh ingredients) and cooking and spend more time relaxing. I also think that there is less of a focus on making money. So from that point of view, I would say that it is a healthier lifestyle than in North America. However, the notion of exercise is not at all prevalent in Morocco. Additionally, people tend to eat too much bread (white flour) and sugar, overcook their vegetables and use too much oil in preparing meals.

Peacock Pavilions Dining Tent

2. Health Coach knows that you are seriously devoted to a healthy lifestyle. Please describe the details of your healthy lifestyle.

I am committed to a healthy lifestyle  to feel better, get more out of life and to have energy to do all the many tasks that I try to accomplish. Exercise is very essential to my routine. I have a kick boxing coach who comes to workout with me at my home 2-3 times a week for a total of 4.5 hours. He is the former champion of Morocco and really puts me through my paces, with a focus on a whole body workout of cardio, strengthening and flexibility. We have  an outdoor gym at Peacock Pavilions and I love working out in nature - feel that it is much better for the spirit. Additionally, we have a running path around our property that is exactly 1/2 mile.

  

Peacock Pavilions

I am also concerned about the food I eat. I am a non-insulin dependent diabetic and so diet is key. In general I watch my sugar intake, eat little or no processed foods and eat little white flour. We buy our produce fresh, local and often and eat an abundance of vegetables and fruits. We use herbs from our own garden and we use our own olive oil from our own olive grove. I also strive to maintain an ideal weight - I am 5 feet 6 and about 118 lbs.

3. Do you have an Hammam there at Peacock Pavilions? Do you use the Hammam?

We don't have a hammam at Peacock Pavilions but it is one of our goals. I personally use a hammam very regularly and consider it an important part of my routine. I go to a private hammam 1-2 times a month to sweat out toxins, cleanse my body and have my skin exfoliated by a scrubber. I normally have essential oils in the hammam, particularily eucalyptus to cleanse my sinuses. After the hammam, I use argan oil to nourish my skin.

4. Is the Hammam still an integral part of life in Morocco?

Very integral. Traditionally Moroccans go to the hammam once a week and there are hammams everywhere. Most hammams have 3 rooms, moving from coolest to hottest. Hammams also serve an important social function, particularly for women. It's also a place to use natural beauty products especially savon beldi (black soap) made from olives.

Peacock Pavilions

5. Health Coach can just imagine the heat there in Morocco and hopes that you are hydrating your body and getting the proper balance of electrolytes. Are there particular ways in which Moroccans take care of the special need for hydration in their hot, dry climate?

Moroccans tend to drink an enormous amount of mint tea, made with fresh mint, sugar and tea pellets. It's the key to their keeping hydrated and of course it is also lovely to look at, smell and taste!

 

Thank you, Maryam, for sharing your experiences at Peacock Pavilions with the visitors, here at HEALTH COACH. We have a live link to your blog, My Marrakesh, and we will continue to visit you and hopefully see you one day soon.

Thank you!
Warm wishes,
Maryam

 Peacock Pavilions

Peacock Pavilions

My Marrakesh
Photo credits: 
www.herbusinessmagazine.com,  The Alkaline Sisters,  Decor8,
Katie O'Shaughnessy, Maryam Montague 

References 
Sweat Mikkel Aaland  
Sauna Studies The Sauna Society of Finland 1977  
Steam Bath Reinhard Bergel




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Yoga Retreat 
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Basic Health Habit No.6: Positive Mental Attitude Part One: The Power of the Mind

click to expand

Happiness is an attitude:  
cultivate it

Imagine that you are a front-wheel drive vehicle. Your front wheels are your thoughts. The back wheels are your emotions. Your thoughts drive your emotions. What you think determines how you feel. The goal is to become an all-terrain four-wheel drive vehicle. 

The good news is that just as you learned to drive a vehicle and earned a driver's license, you can also learn positive thinking and gain happier feelings. A positive mental attitude is a learned behaviour and happiness is a feeling that you can cultivate. Learning how to be a positive thinker will lead to greater happiness in your life no matter what the obstacle, or how rough and bumpy the road may get. Then you will be in the driver's seat of your thoughts and feelings.

A Positive Mental Attitude is a Basic Health Habit.

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HEALTH COACH
Basic Health Habit No. 6

Positive Mental Attitude

Part Two: Happiness in Canada

The Neuroscience and Physiology of 

The Power of the Mind

• When you experience a placebo response, it’s not imaginary or all in the mind: your symptoms are eased by physical changes just like those triggered by drugs. This is because warning signals such as pain are ultimately controlled by the brain. Feeling stressed, alone or under threat causes the brain to amplify the warning, whereas feeling safe or optimistic once a crisis is over triggers the brain to ease off. 

• Our mental state can be crucial in determining our experience of symptoms such as pain, nausea, fatigue and depression; there are many endogenous opioids, neurotransmitters, hormones, and endocannabinoids involved in this process.  Taking a placebo painkiller causes the release of pain-relieving endorphins in the brain, for example, whereas fake oxygen can reduce levels of neurotransmitters called prostaglandins, which dilate blood vessels and cause many of the symptoms of altitude sickness.

• The mind can also affect physiological functions such as digestion, circulation and the immune system. All of these processes are controlled by the brain, via the autonomic nervous system. Feeling stressed or afraid can cause your heart to race and your bowels to empty, for example, and triggers the immune response of inflammation. These processes aren’t usually under conscious control - we can’t will changes to occur - but there are indirect methods we can use to influence them. Reducing stress is an example.

• The inherent plasticity of the brain means that, through conscious changes, the brain itself (and thus, how you think, feel, and respond) can be changed. 
• You can build mental strength. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, and the ability to change and develop mental fitness. 

• Emotion regulation lowers cortisol (harmful stress hormone) levels. 

• Social and emotional learning is a sound strategy to improve the skills of social adaptation and functioning. Social and emotional learning changes brain structure and function, gene expression, and promotes adaptive emotional and cognitive functioning. 

• Recent research has also established that electrical brainwave patterns of the right and left hemisphere tend to co-ordinate more when we experience humour. This is important because evidence shows that depression is accompanied by less co-ordination in brainwave patterns between the two sides. Humour requires a unique opportunity for the cooperation of cognitive and emotional brain function integration. 

• A PMA leads to healthier lifestyle choices and therefore, increased brain health and function. 

• A positive mental attitude has the ability to boost body functions (including happy brain chemicals) and the resistance to disease.  

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HEALTH COACH: The Psychology of Joy 

for more information

Positive Psychology 

The Science of Happiness really gained momentum in 1998 fueled by the vision of American Psychological Association President Dr. Martin Seligman. 

For most of its history psychology had rarely left the dark realm of mental illness and all that ails the human mind: anxiety, depression, neurosis, paranoia, obsessions and delusion. 

Dr. Seligman had begun to explore the sunny land of the mentally hale and hearty in earlier work. He had discovered that optimism leads to improved physical health, less pain and a decreased risk of dementia, less depression and mental illness, an improved quality of and longer life, more happiness and success, and people who are optimistic are more altruistic than pessimistic people, are more curious, creative, energetic and engaged in life and have better relationships.

Seligman thought that mental health could be more than the absence of mental illness; he didn't just want to help patients go from negative five to neutral normal, he wanted to discover the enabling conditions that make human beings flourish from zero to plus five. To discover what actively made people feel fulfilled, engaged and authentically happy.

Seligman, along with a team of Psychologists from around the world and many different studies later, concluded that the failure to believe that our behaviour matters was the greatest obstacle to happiness. They discovered that once a person has their basic needs met that it is not circumstances such as wealth, education, youth, marriage or good weather that determines happiness. 

They concluded that happiness is 90% internal response and 10% external factors. They discovered that meaningful relationships with family and friends has the greatest affect on our happiness. However when it comes to religion it was not clear whether faith or community does the heavy lifting.

Optimism and Pessimism

Five Myths about Optimism

1. Negative thinking is more realistic.

2. People with a positive mental attitude expect good things to happen simply by thinking positively about them. 

3. Positive thinking doesn't change reality.

4. Positive thinkers have no clue about the real world. 

5. Positive people are always euphoric and idealistic.

Pessimists may have a more realistic view of life at times because they expect undesirable outcomes and optimists may at times have an unrealistic view of life because they don't assume the worst. 

Pessimists believe that there are temporary, specific reasons for good events and universal explanations for bad events, while optimists believe that the reasons for bad events are temporary and specific. 

When something bad happens, pessimists feel that it is permanent and pervasive and it affects other areas of their lives, leaving them feeling helpless, whereas optimists are less likely to let the event affect other aspects of their lives and have an easier time accepting failure. 

Pessimists tend to have fixed ideas and negative viewpoints that prevent them from thinking creatively and optimists have hopeful, flexible viewpoints, are more stalwart and will try new behaviours. 

Pessimists hold themselves back from achievement and optimists tend to create a happier, more successful life. 

Pessimists see stumbling blocks where optimists see stepping stones.

I tend to operate as a pragmatic optimist. I also imagine that I am a luxury vintage yacht, on the sea of life. I didn't start out that way when I began my young adult life. I was quite an unworthy seafaring vessel. I made grand, unforgivable and irreversible mistakes. I experienced so much pain that I literally thought that it might kill me. I tried to run away. I told myself impossibly bad things about myself. 

And then one day I had an epiphany. I realized that I could not leave myself even though that's who I was really running away from and I realized that I could choose how I felt and I got off the fixed loop of my negative self thoughts and ideas. I decided that since I had to live inside me I had better make it a place where I was happy to be. 

I took an unblinkered look at myself and my life. I noticed that the pain wasn't as scary when I had a direct look at it. I accepted that pain is a normal part of life and I became grateful that I could feel. I accepted responsibility for myself and my life. I got busy learning and growing. I gained perspective. I developed a sense of humour. I earned my courage. I wanted to own myself. And I realized that if I took firm control of my ship and rode out the rough bits with tenacity and steered myself right, that I would come to smooth seas and that one day I would even like myself. I constantly have to tune myself up and re-orient my bearings.  I know that life is not static and neither are we. 

We can always learn and grow and develop new skills. Welcome the challenges of life or you will never know what you are truly made of and not just who you are when the going is easy. I am sure that you will like the you that you will discover if you embrace all that life is. If you have the courage to do this, I promise you, you will be more than you thought possible. 

DO YOU KNOW?

Hedonic and Eudaimonic

Well-being is a complex construct that concerns optimal experience and functioning. Current research on well-being has been derived from two general perspectives: the hedonic approach, which focuses on happiness and defines well-being in terms of pleasure attainment and pain avoidance; and the eudaimonic approach, which focuses on meaning and self-realization and defines well-being in terms of the degree to which a person is fully functioning. 

Enlightenment
Probably the best psychological term to use for enlightenment is equanimity, a state of psychological stability and composure which is undisturbed by experience or exposure to emotions, pain or other phenomena that may cause others to lose the balance in their mind.

People with great equanimity are fully present, can concentrate their attention with great skill, and have a compassionate and loving attitude.

How can we actually achieve enlightenment?

• Repeated internalization of positive emotions is important, says Hanson, such as taking pleasure from simple things like friendships or time with family. 
• Labelling emotions also helps. Simply jotting down one word about how your feeling such as angry, or competitive helps us to control our emotions.
• Stay with a nice moment longer, indulging it in it helps. 
• Mindfulness meditation is a practice that trains the mind by focusing on the breath or a particular object. This helps to build up neuro circuits in the anterior cingulate cortex and results in improved attention, focus, and equanimity.
• If striving for virtue and kindness, Psychologist Dr. Rick Hanson says he likes to practice a technique called hit and run compassion, in which a total stranger is chosen on the street, and is secretly and silently wished well for a few seconds.

 Tips For Cultivating Happiness: 
Plant it, Feed it, and it Will Grow

• Make room for positive in your thinking and behaviour.
• Happiness is a direction not a place. - Sydney J. Harris
• Take care of your health. Tune up your Basic Health Habits: sleep, digestive health and nutrition, hydration, physical activity, sweating, positive mental attitude, sunlight, breathing, rest and relaxation, meditation, hygiene, life skills, and nature. Links to all of the 13 Basic Health Habit features :: here
• Increase your capacity for loving. 
• Know yourself. Own yourself.
• Be kind to yourself. 
• Invest time and energy in family and friends.
• Be full of wonder. Start a journal of wonder to record the mundane to the magnificent.
• Savour life's little joys and moments of pleasure.
• It is important to work on social skills.
• Optimists know that their behaviour matters. 
• Develop strategies for coping with stress and hardship.
• Have perspective.
• Be pragmatic. 
• Worry and anxiety are always about the future, states Brad. What if I'm in the water with a shark? Janet wonders. The shark hasn't eaten you yet has it? Brad responds.
• Practice acts of kindness, both random and systematic.
• Thank a mentor - someone that helped you through difficult times; in detail and in person.
• Develop personal strengths and virtues.
• Grace makes beauty out of ugly things. - Bono 
• Develop your sense of humour. Laugh a lot.
• Allow yourself to day dream. All original thinking happens in the subconscious. This is where you will  find your most creative ideas and problem - solving abilities. (conscious thinking is always related to something that you have seen or heard)
• Optimists know that life is hard and it can be unfair. They take courage, learn to cope and work hard to make great things happen.
• Optimists make their own luck.
• You have to be ready for luck. 
• Develop your love of learning.
• Learn something new.
• Do the hardest thing first.
• Ask: What would the wise woman/man do? 
• Be considerate. 
• Be empathic. 
• Learn to forgive. It allows you to move forward.
• Engage in life. Have a sense of purpose.
• Optimists have a firm grasp of reality.
• It took me some time to learn how to smell a problem and get the hell out of dodge. - Sean Penn (he's in dodge now; I hope he has an excellent support team)
• Learn how to smell a problem. 
• Build an excellent support team. 
• If there is a problem, there most definitely is a solution. 
• Accept responsibility.
• Allow yourself to dream.
• Dream big. 
• Learn to love all of life and not just the good stuff.
• Be generous. 
• Optimists sometimes get discouraged and feel blue, but they learn how to cope; they develop great strategies. 
• Recognize thought patterns. 
• Stop self-sabotage.
• Mistakes are O.K. 
• No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. - Beckett
• Learn to love people and not just humanity.
• Optimistic people are not always optimistic. But it's not their fixed address. 
• It is not smooth seas that make for a skillful sailor. - African Proverb
• Regrets are inevitable. But don't get stuck.
• Take time to be alive.
• Life is about breathing. The rest is detail.
• Breathe.
• We learn walking by walking. So take it step by step; one step at a time. 
• Be honest with yourself. 
• If you want to change the world - start by changing yourself. - Ghandi
• There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.
• Be good to yourself. 
• The goal is to be happy right here and now and not because of something. 
• Have a massage. 
• The best things happen when you're relaxed. 

Optimism brings opportunity.

 

Humour and Laughter: 
An Important Mind Game For Well Being

Our unique sense of humour relieves stress, keeps us fit and helps us to enjoy a long, happy life.

Scientists are beginning to take humour seriously. Margery Hutter Silver, a Neuropsychologist at The Harvard Medical School, studied longevity and found one common factor emerged in those who live past 100 - a sense of humour. Dr Hutter speculates that a sense of humour contributes to aging well because smiling and laughing provide the same benefits as exercise - she refers to laughing as internal jogging. 

Laughter raises blood pressure just long enough to increase oxygen and blood supply to tissues. It alters the breathing cycle so that more oxygen is inhaled and toxic carbon dioxide exhaled. Muscles throughout the body tense and relax during laughter in exactly the same way as with stress reduction techniques such as yoga.

Herbert Lefcourt and colleagues at Waterloo University in Ontario recently established that exposure to humour improves immune system functioning, producing significant rises in the body's natural defences, such as antibodies in the bloodstream.

Low antibody levels predict greater likelihood of future disease, yet what was particularily intriguing about Dr. Lefcourt's  study was that, given something to laugh at, those with a good sense of humour experienced the highest rises in antibody levels.

The ability of a good sense of humour to help cope with stress is now regarded as one of the most powerful defense mechanisms for dealing with problems over which you can do little.

Recent research has also established that electrical brainwave patterns of the right and left hemisphere tend to co-ordinate more when we experience humour. This is important because evidence shows that depression is accompanied by less co-ordination in brainwave patterns between the two sides. 

What is particularly fascinating about the latest discoveries is that they confirm some of the oldest ideas about humour.

Freud, who wrote one of the most unfunny books in the English Language, Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious, believed humour was a mechanism for anxiety release because a joke always has two halves. The first builds up psychic tension which is then broken by the ridiculous punchline. We are therefore allowed to release bottled up unease safely in a burst of laughter.

But the punchline has to resolve the tension it sets up successfully and surprisingly - in other words, all jokes are really problems that have a clever but unexpected answer.

Modern neurologists have found damage to the right brain - the emotional hemisphere - leads to acceptance of any incongruity as funny - sufferers laugh too much and often inappropriately.

Meanwhile, damage to the left brain - the logical analytical hemisphere - leads to an inability to understand the incongruity in a joke - producing too much seriousness.

This would suggest that humour is produced in the brain when the left hemisphere recognizes the incongruity in a joke while the right hemisphere - better at understanding the big picture rather than logical detail - resolves the anomaly. In other words the left cortex sets up the joke and the right gets it.

Dr. Peter Derks, a psychologist at William and Mary College in Virginia, has found that electrical brainwave patterns confirming the brain has picked up an incongruity are vital for us to find a joke funny. 

The latest brain scanning technology, functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), is able accurately to localize brain activity. Research using fMRI is revealing where the humour centre in the brain is. The frontal part of the right brain becomes most active when a punchline arrives. Previously the right frontal lobe has been considered the most silent of brain areas. Now it would appear that it is the most important. The right frontal lobe is unique in the brain as an area that serves as a connecting point between different parts that might otherwise remain isolated. For example, the frontal lobe is strongly connected with the deeper inner parts linked to the experience of emotions - called the limbic system - and the parts associated with emotional expression, the temporal and frontal lobes.

The part of the brain linked to problem solving is the frontal lobe itself. It was not until scientists began to study humour that the right frontal lobe's importance emerged. Humour requires a unique integration of problem solving, emotional appreciation and expressive functions, and it was here that it came into its own. Integrating emotion and cognition, as we must to laugh, can only occur because of the ability of the brain to produce consciousness.

Laughter Yoga

Dr. Madan Kataria started laughter yoga in 1995 in Mumbai to share laughter, promote health and joyful living. It involves laughing for no reason, does not use jokes or comedy or yoga poses. Laughter is used as a form of exercise combined with deep breathing plus stretching and meditation. Pretend laughter leads to real laughter (although both have the same benefits) due to eye contact and the contagious nature of laughter in a group. Their are 5000 clubs in 50 countries. 

Credit

Quote: Happiness is an attitude, cultivate it: Mildred Barthel

Humour and Laughter - by Raj Persaud

Develop Good Habits

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