The Power of Hope

Every few years I write about the placebo effect in this space because it’s such a crucial—and potentially confusing—player in health and wellness. The word placebo pops up just about every month in the Wellness Letter. It turns up a dozen times here in our article about reflexology.

How much do acupuncture’s apparent benefits derive from the placebo effect? That’s a key question about most complementary and alternative therapies—but also about much of mainstream medicine. Researchers and doctors have a love/hate relationship with the placebo effect. While we want to encourage it, we don’t want the benefits of our treatments to derive solely from the placebo effect. But does it really matter? And what is this mysterious phenomenon?

The placebo effect occurs when belief in a remedy or in the power of a trusted and caring practitioner actually helps the remedy work and triggers an improvement in symptoms and health. A placebo (Latin for “I will please”) is a “fake” or simulated treatment, such as a dummy pill or sham procedure, administered to someone who is unaware that it’s not a “real” treatment. As far back as ancient times it was known that the hope and expectation people experience when treated—even with a placebo—can play a large role in recovery. When it comes to pain and many other phenomena, the mind and body work together.
That makes it hard to tell to what extent beneficial results come from a treatment itself or from the patient’s positive expectations. But it’s essential to know whether the apparent efficacy of a treatment such as acupuncture is due solely to the placebo effect. The only way to find out is to test treatments against a placebo in controlled clinical trials, in which neither the researchers nor the patients know who is getting the treatment and who is getting the placebo. Even with a drug or procedure that’s more effective than a placebo, a patient’s hope and expectation that it will help can add to its effectiveness.

It’s estimated that anywhere from 10 to 40 percent of people given a placebo show some improvement for a variety of symptoms or conditions. This effect is more likely to occur when people believe that someone is trying to help them and thus expect relief, and especially if the someone is an optimistic practitioner in a therapeutic setting.

Placebos have a bad reputation because they involve deception. If I prescribe sugar pills for patients with migraines, they may have less pain for a while, but I have deceived them. Doctors are obliged to try to cure the ailment, not merely make patients feel better temporarily. But often we do both, and sometimes the latter is the best we can do. Some patients may not care if they are secretly given a placebo, so long as it helps. However, others would lose trust in their doctors if they found out. And without trust, even proven treatments may work less well.

But things are not always black or white—placebo or effective treatment. For instance, even after reading dozens of studies and reviews about acupuncture, I’m not sure how beneficial it is beyond its strong placebo effect. Still, when I was in practice I sometimes advised acupuncture and I would still do so today—at least for patients with conditions such as back or neck pain that isn’t alleviated by conventional treatment, or nausea caused by chemotherapy.

The trick is to harness the placebo effect as an ally in healing—for treatments that are of proven efficacy as well as for those of uncertain efficacy.

Power of Napping

As if we needed another reason to enjoy a midday snooze, a growing body of research suggests that napping helps improve memory. Think of a nap as a quick reboot for your brain, triggering a neurochemical process that helps you remember things and learn new tasks.
Several recent studies, here and abroad, have linked midday naps to improvements in cognitive function. Researchers from the University of Düsseldorf in Germany, for instance, reported that short naps—some as little as six minutes—significantly improved memory.

That’s not all: Most adults find that a nap improves their concentration and makes them more alert. French researchers, writing in the journal Sleep, found that nappers, especially younger ones, did better on a nighttime driving test than non-nappers.

Improve your napability

Some of history’s most creative people understood the benefits of a midday nap. Johannes Brahms and Napoleon reportedly savored their siestas, and Winston Churchill claimed that napping allowed him “to press a day and a half’s work into one.”

Why this need to snooze only hours after waking from a nighttime slumber? Sleep researchers have learned that the urge to nap in the afternoon is nearly universal. It is driven largely by our internal biorhythms, which control wakefulness, temperature and other processes.

While it’s normal to feel some fatigue during the course of the day, talk to your doctor if you experience excessive daytime sleepiness. Chronic tiredness and a frequent need to sleep may be signs of depression, sleep apnea, medication side effects or other health problems.

For most of us, naps are safe, enjoyable and beneficial. Here are some tips for a restful nap:

• Short naps are better than long ones. Some people feel refreshed after just 10 minutes. Long naps can interfere with your nighttime sleep and cause post-nap grogginess.
• Don’t nap close to your bedtime. Napping too late in the day can affect your ability to fall asleep and stay asleep at night. If you have insomnia, daytime napping may worsen it.
• Napping is not for everyone. Some people find it hard to nap or feel worse after they do. If that’s you, find other healthy ways to counter the midday slump, such as a brisk walk or other form of exercise.

Sleep: Does Counting Sheep Work?

Q: Does counting sheep really help for insomnia?

A: Not usually. Many people with insomnia say they’re unable to turn off worrisome or emotionally arousing thoughts at night. The harder they try, the worse it gets. This often morphs into anxiety about not being able to sleep, which only worsens matters. One traditional remedy is distracting yourself in some way. But counting sheep is too boring to keep distressful thoughts away.
A better alternative is cognitive refocusing treatment. It involves doing personally engaging yet non-arousing mental tasks (such as reciting lyrics from favorite songs or plots from books) while trying to fall asleep and when waking up during the night.
For instance, researchers from Syracuse University in New York have found this strategy to be more effective than standard sleep advice. It tends to be more effective than counting sheep because it uses personalized scripts that are more appealing and easier to focus on, to have health for me

Walking in Nature

A few months ago I went on my annual backpacking trip in California’s magnificent Sierra Nevada mountains. I usually go with a friend for five or six days, and we do pretty well, considering that we’re now grandfathers.

Though the trips are strenuous, I always come home recharged, physically and mentally. I get a lot out of exercising regularly year-round, at the gym or running in my neighborhood, but I get so much more out of this annual trek. It’s not just exercise, or a vacation or quality time with a friend. What makes it especially restorative is being out in nature.

This nature stuff may sound touchy-feely (very “Berkeley”) but there’s real science behind it. Lately, researchers have been looking at what happens to our brains and bodies when we’re walking in a forest, in the mountains or by the sea. The study of such “green exercise” usually falls under the umbrella of environmental psychology (or ecopsychology). The Japanese, in particular, have been studying what they call “forest bathing” (Shinrin-yoku)—that is, spending time in nature for therapeutic effects.

Studies have found, for instance, that people do better on tests involving memory or attention after trekking through the woods than after walking in a city. People have increased vitality (that is, physical and mental energy) and a greater sense of well-being after walking through a tree-lined river path than after walking indoors. Other studies have even found that patients in hospitals tend to recover more quickly when they can see trees from their windows.

The proposed benefits of walking in nature include giving the brain a respite from the multitasking of everyday life. If you enjoy hiking, you know that you become more aware of your surroundings—the sounds, smells, colors. Time slows down. Somehow this refreshes the brain and makes thinking clearer. Japanese researchers have found that walking through forests can help reduce stress, lower blood pressure and heart rate and improve various aspects of immune function for anywhere from a few hours to a few days afterwards—while walking in a city does not. They suggest that various airborne chemicals emitted from plants may play a role.

All it takes is five to 20 minutes in nature to boost mood and energy levels somewhat, some research has found, though longer forays produce greater benefits. Other studies indicate that there’s a “third-day effect”—a special stage of relaxation and mindfulness that occurs after a couple days of hiking. I consistently experience that on my trips. Being out of the range of cell phones and email helps.
Not everyone enjoys hiking or can do it, of course. Other activities—by the shore or even in a city park—may be your thing. Find what kind of environmentalist you are, and enjoy.

Why learn to meditate

Why learn to meditate

The purpose of meditation is to prepare healthy life tomorrow, make our mind calm and peaceful. If our mind is peaceful, we will be free from worries and mental discomfort, and so we will experience true happiness; but if our mind is not peaceful, we will find it very difficult to be happy, even if we are living in the very best conditions. If we train in meditation, our mind will gradually become more and more peaceful, and we will experience a purer and purer form of happiness. Eventually, we will be able to stay happy all the time, even in the most difficult circumstances.

Usually we find it difficult to control our mind. It seems as if our mind is like a balloon in the wind – blown here and there by external circumstances. If things go well, our mind is happy, but if they go badly, it immediately becomes unhappy. For example, if we get what we want, such as a new possession or a new partner, we become excited and cling to them tightly. However, since we cannot have everything we want, and since we will inevitably be separated from the friends and possessions we currently enjoy, this mental stickiness, or attachment, serves only to cause us pain. On the other hand, if we do not get what we want, healthy life tomorrow or if we lose something that we like, we become despondent or irritated. For example, if we are forced to work with a colleague whom we dislike, we will probably become irritated and feel aggrieved, with the result that we will be unable to work with him or her efficiently and our time at work will become stressful and unrewarding.
Such fluctuations of mood arise because we are too closely involved in the external situation. We are like a child making a sandcastle who is excited when it is first made, but who becomes upset when it is destroyed by the incoming tide. By training in meditation, we create an inner space and clarity that enables us to control our mind regardless of the external circumstances. Gradually we develop mental equilibrium, a balanced mind that is happy all the time, rather than an unbalanced mind that oscillates between the extremes of excitement and despondency.
If we train in meditation systematically, eventually we will be able to eradicate from our mind the delusions that are the causes of all our problems and suffering. In this way, we will come to experience a permanent inner peace, known as “liberation” or “nirvana”. Then, day and night in life after life, we will experience only peace and happiness, and have a healthy life tomorrow.

What is Meditation?

Meditation is a practice in which an individual trains the mind or induces a mode of consciousness, either to realize some benefit or for the mind to simply acknowledge its content without becoming identified with that content or as an end in itself.

The term meditation refers to a broad variety of practices that includes techniques designed to promote relaxation, build internal energy or life force (qi, ki, prana, etc.) and develop compassion, love, patience, generosity and forgiveness. A particularly ambitious form of meditation aims at effortlessly sustained single-pointed concentration meant to enable its practitioner to enjoy an indestructible sense of well-being while engaging in any life activity.

The word meditation carries different meanings in different contexts. Meditation has been practiced since antiquity as a component of numerous religious traditions and beliefs. Meditation often involves an internal effort to self-regulate the mind in some way. Meditation is often used to clear the mind and ease many healthy life tomorrow concerns, such as high blood pressure, depression, and anxiety. It may be done sitting, or in an active way—for instance, Buddhist monks involve awareness in their day-to-day activities as a form of mind-training. Prayer beads or other ritual objects are commonly used during meditation in order to keep track of or remind the practitioner about some aspect of the training.

Meditation may involve generating an emotional state for the purpose of analyzing that state—such as anger, hatred, etc.—or cultivating a particular mental response to various phenomena, such as compassion.[citation needed] The term "meditation" can refer to the state itself, as well as to practices or techniques employed to cultivate the state. Meditation may also involve repeating a mantra and closing the eyes. The mantra is chosen based on its suitability to the individual meditator. Meditation has a calming effect and directs awareness inward until pure awareness is achieved, described as "being awake inside without being aware of anything except awareness itself." In brief, there are dozens of specific styles of meditation practice, and many different types of activity commonly referred to as meditative practices to have healthy life for me today

Meditation Day 14 Guardian Angel for Protection and Healing of the Heart

This is day 14 of the 30 day meditation challenge for beginners, to teach you how to meditate in an easy and simple way to create inner peace and happiness and reduce stress, anxiety and worry, have healthy lifestyle, improve our health for future

Your guardian angel is there to protect you and keep you safe and sound, so do this guardian angel meditation and let your angel know that you welcome it in to your life and that you want and in its protection and love to heal your heart and make you feel happy and joyful. Your guardian angel is always there with you, and is you are feeling sad and depressed, the angel can help comfort you and lift your spirit. Your guardian angel is also able to guide you through life and help you make the right decisions. So try this guardian angel meditation for protection and inner peace, with soft meditation music, and reconnect with your angel.

Meditation - Day 13 - Heart Chakra - Heal Your Heart and Find Love

This is day 13 of the 30 day meditation challenge for beginners, so that you can learn how to meditate if you are completely new to meditation, improve our health for me today.

Your heart chakra, Anahata, is the center for love and compassion, and you need to heal and balance your heart so that you can give and receive love. Your heart chakra allows you to feel unconditional love, but if your chakra is closed or overactive, it can create imbalance and make you either emotionally cold or too love seeking. So balance your chakra and heal your heart with this guided heart chakra meditation for beginners.

So open and heal your heart and allow yourself to love so that you can find love in your life and feel like you deserve to be loved. This will help you attract love in your life and attract by the law of attraction great people into your life, with whom you can share your love, future health.

Meditation Day 12 - Mindfulness Exercise for Cleansing and Healing

This is day 12 of the 30 day meditation challenge for beginners: Mindfulness exercise... so join the challenge and get a new meditation exercise every day for stress, relief, healing, spiritual development, and health improvement for me

Mindfulness helps us to become aware and mindful of all the things we experience, and takes us out of our autopilot mode, so that we can begin to experience the beauty of our everyday life. This meditation exercise is a mindful shower exercise with soft shower sounds of falling water, where you will stay mindful for the entire shower, and observe every physical sensation of what you feel, hear, see, and smell. Take in everything and learn to connect with your senses. Mindfulness is a great way of experiencing the world, and mindfulness can be done everywhere and with everything such as the shower. A shower a the perfect opportunity to heal and cleanse the body and mind, as it is our quiet and peaceful time alone... our time of solitude and healing, so why not use this time to do the meditation of the day.

Meditation - Day 11 - Solar Plexus Chakra Meditation - Healing of Will Power and Confidence

This is day 11 of the 30 Day Meditation Challenge for Beginners, to teach you the basics of meditation and how to meditate. Chakra meditation is a central exercise in spiritual meditation and something that can heal and improve your physical, mental and spiritual body, have health for future, ỉmprove our future health for me.

Guided Solar plexus chakra meditation with soft ambient healing meditation music for relaxation. The solar plexus, or Manipura in Sanskrit, is the location of your will power and confidence and self esteem. Opening and healing your solar plexus chakra, can therefore help you feel more confident and strength your will power and ability to make decisions and follow your goals and dreams. This solar plexus meditation is easy to follow and great for beginners.

So do this guided meditation and heal and open your solar plexus chakra and make sure that it is spinning and is balanced. So if you want to learn how to be confident and improve your self esteem, this guided chakra meditation may be able to help you and make you feel strong and with a strong will power.

Meditation - Day 10 - SoHum Meditation Mantra - How to Empty The Mind

This is day 10 of the 30 Day Meditation Challenge for Beginners, and this is guided meditation exercise for relaxation and inner peace.

The SoHum, or SoHam, meditation mantra is an ancient meditation technique also used in yoga. You will chant the word So when you breathe in and Hum when you breathe out (in your mind), which create a peaceful rhythm and helps emptying the mind and stop inner chatter and thoughts. SoHam is Sanskrit and means "I am That", which helps you connect with the universe and the world around, as you become one with everything, just like God told Moses "I am that I am".

The Sohum chant is also a great meditation technique for beginners, as it is simple and easy to do, and helps you focus and keep thoughts out of the mind during meditation. 

Meditation - Day 9 - Sacral Chakra, Heal and Balance Your Chakra

This is day 9 of the 30 day meditation challenge for beginners, and today's meditation exercise will help you heal and open your sacral chakra, improve your future healthy life tomorrow so that you can feel like a whole person and be comfortable and confident with who you are and your own personality. This is a soft and peaceful healing meditation with ambient relaxation music.

Guided sacral chakra meditation to heal and balance the chakras. The sacral chakra, or Svadhishthana, is associated with your emotions, sexuality and creativity and the chakra needs to be healed and spinning in order to create balance and harmony in your chakra system. A closed Sacral chakra can make you less connected with your emotions or sexuality or it can make you too emotional. So do this sacral chakra healing meditation... a spiritual healing meditation for your spiritual energy fields in your body, have a healthy lifestyle for future

Meditation - Day 8 - Guided Visualization Meditation for Stress Relief and Relaxation

In meditation day 8, I will guide you visualization meditation for stress relief and relaxation to have healthy life for me today.

Visualization meditation is a great way to reduce stress and tension and induce relaxation and peace in your life. This is a guided meditation of a visualization meditation on a quiet and peaceful beach, to help you completely relax and get a break from a stressful life. This is day 8 of the 30 Day meditation challenge for beginners for people who want to learn how to meditate and learn all the basics of meditation. This is therefore an easy guided meditation exercise for relaxation that can improve your health and connection to your spirituality. So join the challenge and learn how to meditate to get a healthier life, both physically and mentally, as meditation is not only able to improve your mood, help you find inner peace and reduce anxiety, but can also reduce blood pressure, treat insomnia, and boost your immune system, improve our future health, healthy lifestyle

Meditation - Day 7 - Heal and Balance Your Root Chakra

This is a guided meditation of the root chakra with relaxation and soft ambient music, and is great for beginners and people who want to learn how to meditate. So join this 30 day meditation challenge for beginners... this is day 7, to have a health for me

Heal and open your root chakra, Muladhara, to create steadiness and security. The root chakra needs to be healed, open and spinning to create balance throughout your chakra system. Chakras are spiritual energy fields from the base of your spine to the top of your head, and each chakra is associated with different individual characteristics. The root chakra is the spiritual location of stability and steadiness. An open and healed root chakra will create a feeling of being grounded and secure, and reduce anxiety and fear, as you have a strong foundation. The root chakra connects you with the earth and the physical world. This is a healing meditation to allow you to be all you can be and feel whole as a person and be confident and strong.
So let's practice to improve our future health for me

Meditation - Day 6 - How to Ground and Center Yourself

This is day 6 of the 30 day meditation challenge for beginners, and this is an easy exercise where you only need to listen to my voice, as I guide you through this meditation exercise for relaxation and stress relief, to have a health for me

Grounding meditation is a great way to create balance and stability in your life. Grounding helps you reconnect with the earth and makes you feel centered and steady. Grounding meditation can give you a feeling of balance in your life and reduce stress and anxiety. Grounding is especially good for people who suffer from anxiety or have panic attacks, as they get a feeling of losing control and floating... Grounding meditation is then able to reduce the anxiety and severity of the panic attack by giving them stability and steadiness.

Have a strong healthy lifestyle for me

Meditation - Gratitude Meditation - Influence the Law of Attraction - Day 5

Day 5 in 30 days of Meditation to improve our future health for me: Gratitude Meditation - Influence the Law of Attraction

Gratitude is so powerful, as it puts us in a state of joy and happiness and we thereby raise our vibrational frequency as we become more positive and send out love to the universe, which affect the Law of Attraction. So say thanks for all that you have and attract more greatness into your life with the power of law of attraction, now that your vibrational frequency is higher.

This meditation exercise will allow you to reflect on all the things you have in your life so that you can feel grateful for the state you are in right now. We need to appreciate where we are in order to go where we want to go. So do this gratitude meditation for the law of attraction and attract happiness, success and love into your life.

Meditation - Mindfulness Meditation - Guided Mindfulness Meditation (Vipassana) - Day 4

In the Day 4 in 30 days of meditation to have a health for me, we learn about: Mindfulness Meditation - Guiđe Mindfulness Meditation (Vipassana) 

Mindfulness meditation, or vipassana meditation, is all about becoming aware of all the things around and inside you and is great for stress relief and reconnecting with your physical body to center yourself. Mindfulness allows you to focus on this present moment and not reflecting on the past or worrying about the future. You have to be mindful and experience this moment right now. Mindfulness is a very well-known type of meditation, and is great for beginners, as it is very simple and easy. what you need to do is to observe your breathe and what you hear, smell and feel but without analyzing anything or interacting with thoughts. You learn to become mindful and observant.
This is day 4 of the 30 day meditation challenge for beginners to help you find inner peace and happiness, healthy lifestyle for me in this stressful modern society.

Meditation - Body Scan Meditation for Insomnia to Help You Fall Asleep - Day 3

Now we pratice meditation Day 3 in 30 days to have a health for me: Body Scan Meditaion for Insomnia to Help You Fall Asleep

This full body scan meditation will help you fall asleep at night and fight insomnia and stress. This guided sleep meditation will guide you through every part of your body to release tension and worry so that you can fall asleep. A body scan is a great way to release stress and tension and help you relax and let go of unnecessary negativity. So today's challenge of the 30 day meditation challenge for beginners, will focus on how to sleep better and improve your overall health for me.
You need to take care of your physical body and meditation can help you feel less stressed out and less angry and frustrated. So scan your body and remove tension and worries so that you can have a nice long and calm sleep and remove insomnia and sleep disorders.

Let 's begin now to have a strong health for me

Meditation - Counting Meditation - Simple Breathing Meditation - Day 2

Now we begin with meditation day 2 in 30 days: Counting Meditation - Simple Breath Meditation - How to have a health for me

Counting the breath is a create way to calm down your breathing and at the same time stay focus during meditation. We will count to 5 while inhaling and 8 while exhaling to allow your parasympathetic nervous system to become active so that you can relax and reduce stress and anxiety. You can do this meditation exercise any time of the day whenever you need a break or feel anxious or stressed out. This video will guide you through this breathing meditation and count for you, so that yo can focus on the breath and on relaxing. This is a great anxiety technique and can reduce fear and anxiety in minutes.
If you feel dizzy stop the exercise or try making the inhalations and exhalations shorter.

Let's begin to have a healthy lifestyle for me

How to Meditate - Meditation for Beginners

Today, I will introduce about the series 30 day to learn meditation to have a health for me tomorrow. Learn how to meditate if you are a beginners and completely new to meditation. This is day 1 of the 30 day meditation challenge for beginners, and will teach you all the basics of meditation and how to meditate. So take this meditation challenge for beginners and learn to meditate so that you can improve your health, health for future, improve your concentration, lower your blood pressure, reduce stress, think clearly, raise your awareness and consciousness, become more spiritual, and improve your life so that you can be happy, healthy and whole as a person.

Today's challenge will be a simple breathing meditation to teach you how to meditate and how to empty your mind of thoughts and inner chatter. The most difficult thing when you are just starting out with meditation, is to empty your mind and become thoughtless... your mind will wander and you will start to have inner conversations with yourself which is completely normal... so this exercise will help you stay focused and stay still, have health for me