De-stress Yourself in a Few Minutes

We all live a stressed life, no matter what we do in our daily lives. Not only our jobs & daily chores make us stressed but the changing environment poses a great risk. So, know how to de-stress yourself and live a better life. Get your mind off the stress & relax. Listing down a few tips to help you out:

1. When feeling too stressed take a pause, just let it go for a few minutes. In a few seconds you will feel a big burden comes off your head. Take a stroll around the office or your house only & the magic occurs.

2. Avoid food with high calories like ice-creams, candy, etc. as they might have a negative effect on the mood. Though some snacking can help keep it only around 70-80 cal, that should be good, it helps you boost your mood. Also it is known that stress adds to the waistline so, this is a sure one.

3. Add some music to lighten the mood. Music is known as a great reliever of stress, so do have some music ready to relieve your stress instantaneously. Personally I feel much better & relaxed once I'm listening to music & working.

4. Green Tea helps relieve stress, due to the presence of theanine (amino acid). It gives the flavor to green tea & helps soothe your nervous system. Please do not substitute it with coffee as it is known to have a negative effect on the mood due to caffeine.

5. Go outdoors. This can be just a matter of few minutes & the change in the surroundings can really calm your nerves & relax. Just looking at something else helps out, just staring the sky or looking at passing by people.

6. Take a hot bath, the heat relaxes the muscles & releases the stress. Some bath salts & soaps do wonders. Scented candles & other aroms can be used for better results.

If none of this work, go pack your bags & take a small trip. And do not reach for your mobile & laptop when on your vacation, a place where you will have time to yourself, meditate, eat & be merry. Works very well for most, why not try it once. Thanks!

Pranayam (Yoga) for Healthy Life

Hi Friends! Today we are going to talk about Pranayam the ancient technique of breathing exercise. It consists of six breathing exercises out of which we will talk about three of them. At first listing down the benefits of these exercises for you so that you know why you should include it in your daily routine.
1. Improves blood circulation
2. Eases out breathing
3. Healthy heart & other organs with proper movement & blood circulation
4. Increases life expectancy
5. Better mental health

Bhastrika Pranayam:
1. Sit with crossed legs in your lawn or your porch on the ground.
2. Close your eyes & breathe deeply so that your diaphragm goes down & your chest expands.
3. Release your breathe at once.
4. Repeat for 5 mins.
5. Start it slow & with time you can increase your speed.

This technique helps us to ease out our breathing process & improves our concentration and other mental abilities.

Kapalbhati Pranayam:
1. Sit in the same position as mentioned above in open air (lawn or porch).
2. Inhale through your nostrils normally, allowing the lung to expand.
3. Exhale through both nostrils forcefully, assist by pulling in your stomach.
4. Repeat for 10 min

This technique helps us concentrate on forced exhalation & normal inhalation. The contraction of stomach muscles in the process helps you in burning fat around the area & improved digestion.

Anulom Vilom Pranayam:
1. While sitting in the same position, close your eyes & concentrate on your breathing.
2. Close the right nostril with right thumb breathe from your left nose, fill your lungs.
3. Move away the thumb & now close the left nostril with the middle & ring finger of the right hand. Exhale completely from the right nostril slowly.
4. Now inhale with your right nose & fill the lungs.
5. And now move your hand & close the right nostril with the right thumb like earlier & exhale.
6. Repeat the process for 10 min.

This technique of alternate breathing helps improve breathing and also uses both the nostrils & clears any congestion. It also helps people suffering from problems of sinus.

I hope this article gives you an insight on how useful introducing pranayam in your daily routine. It gives a fresh start to your day & shows great results in improving the quality of life. Thank You!

Coffee: Good or Bad?

Coffee has been discredited by many as bad for health. There have been lot of posts on bad effects of coffee. Now recent research has come up with lot of good effects of coffee, mainly the caffeine content. Though high dosage of caffeinated coffee is not good for health, more than 28 cups in a week can have adverse effects. Let's start with some good points in favor of coffee:

1. Coffee has been known as an energy drink for ages & that is due to caffeine present which helps in blocking an inhibitory neurotransmitter named Adenosine. This helps in other transmitters to become active which make your brain more receptive & increases functioning of the brain. It increases energy levels, memorizing capability, reaction time & general cognitive function.

2. Caffeine can improve fat burning in the cells, boosting the metabolic rate by 3-10%. Also adrenaline levels are increased due to caffeine which makes us more active & can make us ready for physical exertion. So, again this can help in losing weight & staying in shape.

3. Coffee is known as lowering Alzheimer's Disease & Dementia. Coffee drinkers have shown upto 65% lower risk of getting these diseases, also risk of Parkinson's disease can be reduced.

4. Coffee reduces the risk of stroke & risk of some types of cancer (liver and colorectal). Often coffee is associated with high blood pressure it is true but is very small & regularly drinking coffee leaves no effect on the blood pressure. Women have shown reduced risk of stroke on drinking caffeinated coffee.

5. Coffee with its huge antioxidant properties have shown reduced risk of deadly skin cancer. It has properties of signal tissue repair which helps in regulating cell re-growth increased collagen level giving a healthy looking & increased skin elasticity.

Friends these can be a good reason for drinking coffee but beware of the side effects. Do not drink too much coffee as it can lead to insomnia & if taken with some medication (anti-depressants, psychiatric drug, thyroid medication, and antibiotics) can have bad effects. Please take care & stay well. Thanks!!