Kathy Smith’s Blog and Your Gateway to Success

When compared to years ago, we have so many wonderful benefits from medical knowledge to technological knowledge to information that helps us to make better decisions. But we are also in a very fast paced society causing more stress and ironically poorer health. If a person could step into a machine that would analyze their current health habits and the food they’re eating, they would be amazed with the number of health conditions awaiting them around the corner.

The answer is having a balance from physical to nutrition to mindset and emotions and spiritual. Don’t go overboard and try to do everything in excess or target one area and hyperfocus. If you have a balance of these in your life, you’ll find you’re appreciating your life more with healthy living and reap multitudes of benefits for you and your loved ones.

The first one I want to focus on is exercise. According to the Mayo Clinic, exercise can improve your mood, help combat chronic diseases, help manage your weight, strengthens your heart and lungs, promotes better sleep and more. Click here to read more about the benefits of exercise.

Nutrition. In addition to exercise, we need to take a look at what we’re putting in our body every day. So many foods are processed and missing many of the important nutrients we need. Processed foods are not just fast foods as many people think. If it’s boxed, bagged, canned or jarred and has a list of ingredients on the label, it’s processed. Processed foods just means that it’s been changed from their natural state for “safety” and convenience. But of course with that “safety” and convenience, there are many ingredients added that are not good for us. Just look at a label and all the ingredients and there are some ingredients that don’t have to be listed and can just be put under a category. Heavily processed foods are usually higher in sugar, fat and salt, and lower in nutrients and fiber than the raw foods used to create them. And according to the World Health Organization, processed foods are to blame for the spike in obesity levels and chronic disease around the world.

I am not saying this to have you never eat again but just to point out that your diet may not be as healthy as you would like to think. To combat this you want to make sure you do have the nutrients needed to help your body stay healthy and fit. The business I am in has over 60 different nutritional products with the purest of natural ingredients and backed by clinical studies. Each of the products passes the 10 Foundational Values.

To take a look at the products from helping you to overcome the stress in your life right now; to helping you to lose weight; sleep at night; build healthier bones and I could go on and on and on, but it’s probably easier if you click here to see all the products.

Emotional Balance and Mindset. The third component to living a healthy life is to have the right mindset and an emotional balance. There are simple things you can add to your day to help achieve an emotional balance. Just taking time to breathe – and not the shallow breathing most people normally do but taking deep breaths from your abdomen several times a day will amaze you on how it will help you to feel more centered.

Drink more water. I know, I know, there are so many debates out there on how much water you need to drink. A simple way of calculating how much water you need is to multiply your weight by .04 and multiply that figure by 2. The answer equals the minimum number of 8-ounce glasses your body needs just to function normally. Even if you think you’re not thirsty, try it anyway. If you’re like me, you’ll start to feel more balanced and energetic. You have to remember that we are 70% water and there are many health benefits to being hydrated.

Get enough sleep. Millions of people in our society suffer from sleep deprivation. Sleep is essential to our having a healthy and balanced life and has a powerful effect on our emotional health. Here are some sleep tips that might work for you. And if they still don’t work, we have a product called Peaceful Sleep with natural ingredients you might want to try.

• Try eliminating caffeine in late afternoon
• Alcohol – don’t rely on a nightcap to get you to sleep – it will help at first but it actually reduces overall quality of sleep and you’ll find yourself waking up in the middle of the night.
• Do you have plenty of room to stretch out in your bed and how are your mattresses, pillows and bedding? You might want to try a foam topper and try different pillows.
• Noise Level – if you have a noisy neighborhood and it’s impossible to cut down the noise, try one of the white noise machines that have soothing sounds such as waves, waterfalls or rain.
• Lights – your room ideally should be completely dark but if that’s not possible try a sleeping mask.
• Air in your room – do you have adequate ventilation and is the temperature comfortable
• Don’t associate your bed with events like work or errands. It may be great to sit in your comfortable bed while working on the laptop or going through papers but it will make it harder to wind down.
• Food – add some calcium to your dinner. Calcium helps your brain use tryptophan and don’t eat too much protein before bedtime. Protein rich foods contain tyrosine that stimulates brain activity.

Additional helpful hints is associating something relaxing before going to bed whether it’s a cup of tea or a warm bath or soft music or even quiet reading. It will start to associate those activities with sleeping and help your body to wind down.

To have a better mindset, one of the first suggestions is to listen to your thoughts. Most people don’t even realize how many negative thoughts they process on a given day. If you told your best friend all the negative thoughts you said to yourself and said those same thoughts to your friend, you probably wouldn’t have that friend around very long. When you have negative thoughts, try noticing them and picture a big stop sign and then shift to a positive thought. I’ll be writing more about techniques to help you develop a more positive mindset. You also want to build a sense of mastery. Do something every day whether it’s reading a book; listening to audios; being around like minded positive people; that will build your feeling of competence and enrich your life. Set goals to accomplish this and you may not notice it right away, but you will see an improvement in your life. It’s just like starting a diet and every day running to the scale to see how much weight you lost. It takes time but then you start to see the results from your efforts. And practice gratitude – every day find something to be grateful for and each day, I predict, you’ll find more and more to be grateful for even in this poor economy and stressful living.

Spiritual. And the last ingredient to Healthy Living is spiritual. You can build a relationship with God in the same way you build a relationship with those around you – through sharing and listening. Take time out each day to say a simple prayer. Just spend 15 minutes each day in prayer or meditation. Many people seek God when there are problems in life but if every day you spend time learning more and being silent and listening, you’ll develop a spiritual strength that will be there through good times and bad times.

Vince Lombardi, the legendary football coach of the champion Green Bay Packers probably said it best…

• God First
• Family Second
• Green Bay Packers Third

By instilling that sense of priorities in his players, they did not just become champions on the field, but rather Pillars in their communities.

For me, I have always been drawn to the Footprints in the Sand poem, and if you haven’t read it yet, I am including it here. There are three versions of this with different authors and this is just one version that I happen to like:

One night a man had a dream. He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the LORD. Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene, he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand: One belonged to him, the other to the LORD.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that many times along the path of his life there was only one set of foot prints. He also noticed that it happened at the lowest and saddest times in his life.

This really bothered him and he questioned the LORD about it. “LORD, you said that once I decided to follow you you would walk with me all of the way But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times of my life there is only one set of footprints. I don’t understand why, when I needed you the most, you would leave me.”

The LORD replied, “My precious, precious child, I love you and I would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.

By Carolyn Joyce Carty ©

If you strive every day to achieve balance in these areas of your life, you’ll be on the path to achieving healthy living that will have a wonderful ripple effect in all areas of your life.