Salubrious Life

SharAmbrosia, "Essential Moods" roll-ons

Unlike a lot of women I know, I like my changing moods. My moods can change daily, a couple times in a day or stay put for a while.

My changing moods allow me to tackle a variety of challenges depending on how I'm feeling.   At times, I'll be in a space to do introspective things. At other times, I'll be fired up and ready to tackle the most daunting of tasks or challenges.  Moods make me feel alive and allow me to see the world and people in it from different perspectives.

I discovered a 100% clean line of essential oils which actually work to match the mood I'm in.    The right essences can even invoke a mood you desire.

SharAmbrosia, is the creator of a new line of personal essence roll-ons called "Essential Moods".  The "Moods" blends are specific to the essential oils contained in each product, which in turn inspires or underscores these moods.    Currently there are seven "Moods" or roll-ons:

Peaceful - a combination of Patchouli and Clove.  Woodsy and calming.  I really liked this one.

Girly - Geranium, Clary Sage and Ylang Ylang - I get what the combination was trying to achieve, but this wasn't one of my favorites.

Tranquil - Ylang Ylang, Cedarwood, Marjoram and Vetivert.  Now this combination was one of my favorites.  Again a woodsy outdoors feeling and sense of peace emerged when wearing this.

Confident - Basil, Marjoram, Grapefruit, Ylang Ylang and Lavender - Really loved this one.  The grapefruit gave it a lift and the lavender boosted feelings of well being.

Romantic -  Cedarwood, Ylang Ylang, Cinnamon and Rose infused Jojoba oil- I'm no fan of cinnamon and the rose combined with Cedarwood was too strong, not a favorite of mine.

Centered -  Bergamot, Rosemary, Nutmeg and Vetivert- Really enjoyed wearing this one.  Of all the oils, this is the one people stopped me to ask "what are you wearing?"

Fresh - Lemon, Cypress, Peppermint and Black Pepper - I adore lemon in anything.  This was nice, but wold have preferred it without the peppermint.

The Essential Moods roll ons are used like perfume.  I found the scent didn't last too long.  The handy size and application made it easy to carry with me and re-apply when I needed a boost.   The base of the products is 100% pure jojoba oil, so similar to the body's own natural oil - it slips on and becomes part of your personal essence immediately.

I tried these for a few days and then gave a few to a variety of people who I thought would also like to try them.  The universal response was extremely positive and most important was the fact that all of these women appreciated putting something on their skin with no chemical, no preservative - nothing to inhibit the pure essential oil blends from mixing with the body's natural oils and creating a truly unique and wearable scent.

Lutein, Zeaxanthin Promote Eye Health

Researchers from the University of New Hampshire found consumption of lutein and zeaxanthin may promote eye health by positively affecting macular pigment (MP), linked to decreasing eye damage, according to research published in the May 2005 issue of The Journal of Nutrition

Researchers investigated dietary intake and serum concentrations of lutein and zeaxanthin in 98 adults, 45 to 73 years old. Macular pigment optical density (MPOD) was measured and compared with participants' fasting serum concentrations and dietary levels of lutein and zeaxanthin. Participants who consumed the highest amounts of fruits and vegetables had greater MPOD than low-consuming participants.

Researchers concluded diets rich in lutein and zeaxanthin positively contribute to eye health by increasing MPOD.

Face FEAR

Fear is life’s only true opponent.  Only fear can defeat life.  It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know it.  It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy.  It goes to your weakest spot, which it finds with unerring ease.  It begins in your mind, always.  One moment you are feeling calm, self-possessed, happy.  Then fear, disguised in the garb of mild-mannered doubts, slips into your mind like a spy.  Doubt meets disbelief and disbelief tries to push it out.  But disbelief is a poorly armed foot soldier.  Doubt does away with it and with little trouble.  You become anxious.  Reason comes to do battle for you.  You are reassured.  Reason is fully equipped with the latest weapons technology.  But, to your amazement, despite superior tactics and a number of undeniable victories, reason is laid low.  You feel yourself weakening, wavering.  You anxiety becomes dread. 

Fear next turns fully into your body, which is already aware that something terribly wrong is going on.  Already your lungs have flown away like a bird and your guts have slithered away like a snake.  Now your tongue drops dead like an opossum, while your jaw begins to gallop on the spot.  Your ears go deaf.  Your muscles begin to shiver as if they had malaria and your knees to shake as though they were dancing.  You heart strains too hard, while your sphincter relaxes too much.  And so with the rest of your body.  Every part of you, in the manner most suited to it, falls apart.  Only your eyes work well.  They always pay proper attention to fear.

Quickly you make rash decisions.  You dismiss your last allies: hope and trust.  There, you’ve defeated yourself.   Fear, which is but an impression has triumphed over you. 

The matter is difficult to put into words.  For fear, real fear, such as shakes you to your foundations, such as you feel when you are brought face to face with your mortal end, nestles in your memory like a gangrene: it seeks to rot everything, even the words with which to speak of it.  So you must fight hard to express it.  You must fight hard to shine the light of words upon it.  Because if you don’t, if your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid, perhaps even manage to forget, you open yourself up to further attacks of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you.    - Life of Pi, by Yann Martel (pg. 161)

Social Intuition

After reading Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, I became very interested in the phenomenon of Social Intuition.  I came across another book called, Intuition: Its Powers and Perils, written by David G. Myers for Yale Press. In this book, Myers cites a story of social intuition which gave me chills.  I've had feelings like this before - never knew the outcome, but most definitely acted on them.  Here's that story:

As Jackie Larsen left her Grand Marais, Minnesota, church prayer group one morning in April, 2001, she encountered Christopher Bono, a short, clean cut, well-mannered youth. Bono said that his car was broken down and that he was looking for a ride to meet friends in Thunder Bay. "I told him to come to my shop and I would look up his friends in the phone book and they could come for him," Larsen later recalled.

When he appeared before her, Larsen felt a pain in her stomach. Initially she thought that he was a runaway, but something told her something was very wrong. She insisted that they talk outside on the sidewalk. "I said, 'I am a mother and I have to talk to you like a mother....I can tell by your manners that you have a nice mother.'" At the mention of his mother, Bono's eyes fixed on her. "I don't know where my mother is," he said.

As the conversation ended, Larsen directed Bono back to the church to talk with the pastor. She also called police and suggested that they trace his car. It was registered to his mother in southern Illinois. When police went to her apartment, no one answered. Breaking in, they found blood all over and Lucia Bono dead in the bathttub. Christopher Bono, 16, was charged with first-degree murder.

Jackie Larsen had a feeling. She intuitively sensed that something was not right. Such feelings often come quickly....

Blink, Malcolm Gladwell

By the Author of The Tipping Point

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart." ~Helen Keller

Malcom Gladwell's second book explores "social intuition" or using ones natural instincts to make better decisions.

Can we really know more about a person in the blink of an eye than we can after months, even years of study?  Do we allow ourselves the right to believe in our first impressions - or even more frightening - do we act on them?

Gladwell has some ideas, backed by research to point to the fact that - YES, we can and should trust some of our more immediate reactions to people, places and things.

What is social intuition? How we know what we know in social situations, and especially, how we read facial expressions? The muscles of the face and the emotions are linked in ways that are just now beginning to astonish researchers. Facial expressions, it turns out, may be as critical to communication as words.

We've been schooled to believe that a decision's merit directly corresponds to the amount of time and effort that went into making it.  "Snap judgments" and "hasty decisions" don't have the ring of quality to them do they?   Yet Gladwell wants us to now believe that more mistakes are made by over evaluation than by using instinct and gut reaction.

In a book titled Self Esteem, your fundamental Power, author Caroline Myss, teaches that instincts are listened to by those with high self esteem.  Without belief in ones own value, you'll always second guess your first impressions, leaving decision making to group consensus or information gathering and research.

What Gladwell asks us to consider is something we all possess called our adaptive unconscious.  The very fast computer chip inside all of our brains that processes massive amounts of information allowing us sometimes to act quickly and based on very little amounts of information.  Do you ever feel for some unexplained reason that you are in danger and change routes?  What about quick reactions when something comes flying at you from behind? You hear a horn honk and move out of the way without even knowing where the car is?

I'm going to have to start to think about the way I think. 

Rather than consider instincts I possess as rash, hasty or rushed - I should learn to "Thin Slice".  This is the art of filtering the key details and variables out of millions of pieces of information at any one time.   Like speed reading - but in the conscious act of decision making.

Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell

Medication and Hart Disease

Over 75% of consumers stated that they are concerned about reducing heart disease and cholesterol and nearly 90% would prefer foods and a dietary supplement approach to managing cholesterol, versus medication.

Shoppers getting more Savvy

According to NorthCastle Partners 52% of shoppers look at the nutrition facts label when they buy a product for the first time.

Health Fact

34% of consumers have decided against a food purchase because of the nutrition information or a lack thereof.

Spring Cleaning for the Body

Yes, it is here. Spring! And it is that time of year to do spring-cleaning. Spring is the cleansing healing season. Listed below are 12 ways to spring clean and aid digestion.

1. Eat foods that include greens, citrus fruits, vegetables and herb teas during this season. They are natural cleansers.
2. Do not eat 2 hours before going to bed. This can cause incomplete digestion and create toxins in the body.
3. Eat only organic food. Eliminate and reduce frozen, processed and preserved foods.
4. Drink plenty of warm liquids such as herbal teas and hot water with lemon. They help clear impurities from the body.
5. Eat food that is for your individual constitution. Certain spices help the body digest and assimilate food as well as detox the body. Contact an Ayurvedic Counselor for more details.
6. Eat only when hungry. Never skip or delay meals. This could create too many or too little digestive enzymes, which can lead to the formation of toxins.
7. Eat only what you need. Eat until you are satisfied and not until you are full. Eating until you are full, makes all organs work harder to digest the food as well as more enzyme secretions are needed to aid in digestion. This overproduction of enzyme secretion can lead to ulcers, bloating and gas.
8. Foods should be simple and naturally delicious. Mixing too many different foods at one meal can also be stressful for the body, especially the digestive system. This places a large demand on your digestive glands to manufacture and secrete many different digestive enzymes simultaneously.
9. In my experience, food combining is an important principle to follow to prevent intestinal gas and fermentation of simple foods like fruits. Contact a Holistic Health or an Ayurvedic Counselor to learn the principles of food combining.
10. Eat moderately: Eating too much at a meal or in your total diet is stressful on the body, may lead to poor digestion, and can slow you down. Eating the proper amount for you is the key to good health and a long life.
11. Cold beverages should not be consumed during or directly after a meal as it reduces digestion. Small sips of room-temperature and warm water taken during the meal serves to aid digestion.
12. Using your own intuition, consider doing a colon and/or a liver cleanse during this time of year. Contact a Holistic Health or Ayurvedic Counselor for guidance.

For more information and to determine your individual constitution, contact Anita Thompkins. Anita Thompkins is founder of Thompkins Fitness & Wellness Center located in Manhattan, NY. She is a certified Holistic Health Counselor, a certified Ayurvedic Self-Care and Maintenance Counselor and has an M.S. in Health Promotions and Community Wellness. www.tfwc.us and www.anitahasaplanforyou.com

Consumer Reports Ranks 9 Top Diets

The June issue of Consumer Reports rates nine popular diets based on calorie counts, nutritional composition and conformity with U.S. dietary guidelines, and evaluated their effectiveness with a comprehensive review of clinical research. Weight Watchers received the highest rating as a balanced diet that doesn't exclude any food group, weekly meetings and weigh-ins for behavioral support, providing the highest long-term adherence rate. Slim Fast was rated second, recommended for people who don't like to cook, and CR found people on the Slim Fast plan lost the most weight in six months. The Zone is recommended for a short-term, high protein diet plan; Atkins Induction and Atkins Ongoing Weight Loss were deemed appropriate for a short-term high protein diet plan, but CR said Atkins’ “nutritional deficiencies—too much fat, and too little fiber and too few fruits—depressed its overall rating.” Ornish was recommended for ultra low-fat, high-fiber vegetarian meals that allow large portions for the low calories.
Other popular weight-loss plans like eDiets, Jenny Craig, South Beach, and Volumetrics are all low enough in calories to produce weight loss, but CR could not rate them because these diets lacked data from large, long-term, published clinical trials.