Family Health Beauty Info

Find a scent

This information comes from InStyle magazine (April 2007, ‘5 ways to improve your mood’, by Robin Powell, pp.184–186)

Smells go directly into the emotional centre of the brain, bypassing rational interpretation and producing an instant emotional response. That’s why smelling the aftershave worn by your first boss might make you uncomfortable around your new date, or why the scent of the roses your grandmother grew can make you feel automatically cocooned in warmth.

It’s worth experimenting to find a few fragrances that can instantly lift your mood. These are often associated with positive memories from childhood – memories of being loved and cared for. For many people, it’s the smell of baking cakes. For others, it’s the scent of ripe mangoes, conjuring summer holidays, or the aroma of fresh coffee creating an expectation of enjoyment.

Use your knowledge to create mood lifters that help you feel content.

You can also train yourself to respond positively to a particular, easily-come-by scent.

For example, put some lavender essence in an oil burner and concentrate on creating a relaxed and positive mood. Soon the smell itself will create the mood, and you can use it to lift a cloud.

Try organic essential oils & perfumes 

See related topics:

Improve your mood with exercise

Keep smiling

Count your blessing

Be daring

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Lucie

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Be daring 

This information comes from InStyle magazine (April 2007, ‘5 ways to improve your mood’, by Robin Powell, pp.184–186)

We like novelty – something new, something different. We hate to be bored, and when our brain’s not engaged in something that takes up our attention it can fill instead with old fears and anxieties, negative feelings and thoughts.

So when you’re feeling down, a change really can be as good as a holiday.

Shake up your routine, try a new gym class, go somewhere else for lunch, sign up to do a course.

It’s also important to protect the value of the things you like to do, by not doing them all the time.

Pleasures repeated too often lose their lustre, in the same way that we kill off our favourite pieces of music by playing them over and over.

Find a range of things you like to do, and do them all, but not so often as to take any of them for granted.

See related topics:

Improve your mood with exercise

Keep smiling

Count your blessing

Find a scent

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Lucie

www.familyhealthbeautyinfo.com

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Keep smiling

This information comes from InStyle magazine (April 2007, ‘5 ways to improve your mood’, by Robin Powell, pp.184–186)

We often think our physical body and our emotions are two separate, yet they are entwined and constantly interacting. We know we clench our teeth when we’re angry, hunch our shoulders when we’re stress and smile when we’re happy, but these emotions go both ways.

Grit your teeth and frown and you’ll start to feel crabby; tense up your shoulders and neck, and feel anxiety start to flow. In the same way, smiling, even when you don’t feel like it, can trigger positive emotions. Blink- John Gotman explains power of face expressions.

The trick is to smile not just with your mouth, but also with your eyes. A real smile involves all those tiny muscles around the eyes. You may need to practise, but once you are a good smile-faker, researchers have found that the electrical impulses set off in the brain are the same from a faked smile, as those resulting from a genuine laugh.

Pretending to feel good has another impact – on other people. Emotional states are contagious: when you confront people with aggression, they give it right back, and when you smile and greet people with a pleasant manner, they tend to respond in kind.

This flow-on effect means that even if you start your day feeling crabby, pretending to be sunny can create enough warmth around you that you can end up experiencing positive emotions.

Silvan Tompkins practically invented the field of ‘nonverbal behaviour’ through close observation of emotional expressions in people. See his book

See related topic

Improve your mood with exercise

Count your blessing

Be daring

Find a scent

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Lucie

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Count your blessings

This information comes from InStyle magazine  (April 2007, ‘5 ways to improve your mood’, by Robin Powell, pp.184–186)

It’s important to acknowledge the privileged life you lead. Not just when it comes to basic physical needs such as food, shelter and water – although we know that’s not the situation for everyone in the world – but also in being loved by friends and family.

We’re often temped to compare ourselves to others, who seem to have more of everything (more money, love, power or status and less behind, belly or baggy bits), and covet their good fortune.

To help address envy, one of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama’s many recommendations is to stop looking at those who appear to have more, and start to looking at those who have less.

Then instead of focusing constantly on what you don’t have, focus on what you do have.

Try this to create a positive mood. Find five ways of completing this sentence:

• ‘I wish I were a …’
• ‘I’m really glad I’m not a …’

Note the different emotions created by either having a whinge, or reflecting on your good fortune!

Dr John Demartini’s book Count your blessings reveals the connection between your health and your state of mind.

See related topic

Improve your mood with exercise

Keep smiling

Be daring

Find a scent

What did you think of this article? I welcome your feedback

Have a lovely day

Lucie

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Improve your mood with exercise

This information comes from InStyle magazine (April 2007, ‘5 ways to improve your mood’, by Robin Powell, pp.184–186)

There are plenty of reasons why you need to keep moving:

• Physical activity is a proven and reliable cure for negative feelings. When you exercise it immediately affects your brain by stimulating the production of serotonin – the same neurotransmitter that is boosted by antidepressants such as Prozac.
• Exercise releases a heady hit of endorphins (happy hormones). It makes you feel better.
• It doesn’t matter what kind of exercise you do – walk, run, swim, dance – it moves the muscles, eases tension, and increases the heart rate, all of which makes us feel better.
• You can increase the positive impact of exercise by adding a challenge or setting a goal, such as taking part in an organised run or booking an adventure holiday.
• Make sure your goals are realistic. Achieving goals, even little ones – cutting the time you take to walk a particular track, improving your tennis serve, nailing a tricky dance move – all increase feeling of achievement and competency, and they make  you feel good.

See related topics:

Count your blessing

Be daring

Find a scent

Keep smiling

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Have a lovely day

Lucie

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Lifestyle tips for taut skin

This information comes from InStyle magazine. (‘Lifestyle tips for taut skin’, by Alysia Poe and Naomi McGee)

Here are some ways to tighten up your skin – and improve your health.

Eat

• Blueberries, broccoli and pomegranates and drink green tea (organic).

Don’t smoke

• Cigarettes decreased the skin’s ability to fight off the free radicals, and the repetitive pursing of lips exacerbates wrinkles around the mouth

Stress less

• High level of the stress hormone cortisol can lead to thinning of the skin. Keep cortisol levels in check with meditation, yoga or moderate exercise. Also get plenty of sleep and take a fish-oil supplement every day.

Cut down on sweets

• When excess sugar binds to collagen and elastin fibres (a process called glycation), they become brittle and the skin sags. Cut out simple sugars such as white bread and fruit juice.

See related article ‘What are free radicals and antioxidants’ or watch the video

See related article ‘Antioxidants in our food or watch the video

Read more about collagen and elastin or watch the video

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Lucie

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The power of water

This information comes from www.thewellofpositivity.com and waterkoolah

Did you know…

1. Water contains no calories.
2. Water protects your joints and organs.
3. Lack of water is a major cause of daytime fatigue.
4. The normal adult’s body weight is between 50 and 60% water.
5. A 2% drop in body water can cause fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic maths, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or a printed page.
6. Drinking plenty of water may protect against health problems including headache, kidney stones, constipation and some cancers.

Start and end your day with water. Your body loses water while you sleep, so top up before bed and again when you wake up. This helps keep your skin hydrated, so it looks vibrant and younger …  a little H2O can go a long way. So now go and drink a glass of this elixir.

See related blogs

Water: the beauty elixir or watch video

Water and our bodies

Drinking too much water

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Lucie

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Make your own face/body cream

This information comes from: Informed
Voice, Vol 3 No 4, Summer 2006, p 68 (‘Skin deep: cleanse without going broke!’)

Rose and marigold cream

This makes a very rich and healing cream, suitable for dry parts of the body. It makes the skin around the eyes soft and smooth, reduces wrinkles and dark shadows, strengthens nails and eyelashes, and heals small broken vessels and wounds. How does it sound to you?

Tip: Heating during preparation should be kept as short as possible.

You’ll need:

• 4 g beeswax
• 5 g cocoa butter
• 20 ml almond oil
• 3 large capsules vitamin E
• 3 large capsules evening primrose oil
• 20 ml pure rose water
•  ¼ tsp borax

1 tsp marigold tincture

You can buy these ingredients from a [health store, pharmacy, local organic markets]

Method

Stage 1

In a small container, melt the beeswax, cocoa butter and almond oil.

Stir very gently over a pan containing hot (not boiling) water. Stir all the time! As soon as the wax melts, take container away from the heat and cool a little.

Add the vitamin E and evening primrose capsules and stir in.

Tip: Pierce the capsules with a needle, sterilised with alcohol.

Stage 2

In a separate container, heat gently:

• 20 ml pure rose water
•  ¼ tsp borax
• 1 tsp marigold tincture (until the borax dissolves)

Do not boil. Alcohol in the tincture will evaporate during the heating, so the finished product will not contain any.

Add the rose water mixture to the almond oil mixture (Stage 1) drop by drop, stirring constantly.

You may decide not to use all the rose water mixture, but bear in mind that the cream will become a lot thicker when it cools.

Cool the cream quickly by placing the bottom of the container in ice-cold water. Add 10 drops of rose (best choice), frankincense or lavender essential oil and stir in.

Pour the cream in the sterilised small (20-ml) glass jars and close tightly.

For the skin around the eyes use this cream within six weeks. On the neck, hands and body you can use it within the next two months.

See related article ‘Recipes for masks and scrubs’ or watch the video

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Lucie

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Make your own face cleansers

This information comes from: Informed
Voice, Vol 3 No 4, Summer 2006, p 68 (‘Skin deep: cleanse without going broke!’)

It’s fun to mix up organic ingredients and then feed our skin. Here are some alternatives to store-bought face cleansers – straight from your kitchen. Instructions are set out below the ingredients lists.

Face cleansers

• Apple cider is natural astringent
• Olive oil helps remove dirt
• The lactic acid in yogurt exfoliates
• Lemon juice tightens pores

Cleanser for dry skin

• 1 cup plain yogurt
• ½ mashed banana or avocado
• ¼ teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Cleanser for oily skin

• 1 cup plain yogurt
• ½ teaspoon olive oil
• ¼ teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Cleanser for normal skin

• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• ¼ teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Method

Combine all ingredients well. Scoop out approximately ¼ cup and apply to your face, neck and décolleté with a circular motion. Massage it into skin for at least one minute. Rinse well with cool (not cold) water. Gently pat dry with a soft cloth.

Store unused cleanser in the fridge for up to seven days.

Tip: If you run out of cleanser, use milk instead. There’s no need to wash it off. It leaves a natural sheen on the skin.

See related article ‘Recipes for masks and scrubs’ or watch the video

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Lucie

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Clean your home with natural wonders, not toxins

This article comes from Home Beautiful magazine [‘Seven natural wonders’, April 2009, p 64.)

These days we are more aware of chemicals and toxins then ever before. Here are some tips on cleaning your home, without poisoning it.

Eucalyptus oil

• This germ-fighter can be splashed into a bucket instead of bleach to disinfect floors. Use it to dissolve build-up stains, glue and sticker residue

Tea tree oil

• This antibacterial is great for mould. Create a shield for the shower by mixing 15 drops in 750 ml water, in a spray bottle. Spray generously and don’t rinse.

Lemon juice

• Cuts through grease on pots and pans, and removes perspiration stains from clothes. Mix one part lemon juice to two parts olive oil to create a solution that makes furniture shine like new.

White vinegar

• Run it though a dishwasher instead of Rinse Aid, and through the rinse cycle of a washing machine to soften clothes. Boil it in a kettle to remove limescale.

Cedar (oil, or dried cedar)

• Keep linens fresh and moth-free by storing this pest preventer in the closet or cupboard

Bicarbonate of soda

• Mix with vinegar to clean the bathroom and unblock drains. Try replacing your usual surface cleaner with bicarb on a damp cloth. Buy at the health food store or local market.

For more natural cleaning wonders visit

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Lucie

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