Natural Holistic Health Blog

Moksha is a term used in many Indian religions. Someone who is thought to experience Moksha is absolved of the suffering and constant rebirth (reincarnation) that life brings. Constantly going through life and death is not considered to be a good thing according to many religious Indian people.

In Hinduism, Moksha cannot be obtained until one reaches a state of full self realization. A Hindu is likely to practice at least one form of Yoga. They also realize that God shows up in many different forms and is unlimited. He shows up personally and sometimes impersonally.

Four Yogas will take someone on the path to Moksha:

1. Karma Yoga – Work for the supreme.

2. Jnana Yoga – Realize the supreme.

3. Raja Yoga – Meditation on the supreme.

4. Bhakti Yoga – Serve the supreme with love and devotion.

Depending on which school of Hindu one decides to follow they will be required to follow one path or another. There are two major schools that are followed nowadays.

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Filed under: Mind and Spirit, Yoga by Dee
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Yoga found it’s roots in ancient India. To practice yoga is to focus on enhancing both physical and mental discipline. There are many different schools of yoga; some of which I will briefly describe in this article.

A sage named Patanjali is believed to be the founder of Yoga by many people. He defines yoga as a practice that inhibits changes in the mind. Patanjali’s texts have influenced one of the most followed schools of meditation called Ashtanga Yoga (Eight-Limbed Yoga). Here are the eight limbs:

1. Yama – Devoid of lying, violence, covetousness, sensuality and being possessive.

2. Niyama – content, study, purity, austerity and belief in god.

3. Samadhi – to merge the conscious mind with the object of meditation.

4. Dhyana – Intensely contemplating the nature of meditation.

5. Pranayama – to stop (restrain), breath control.

6. Pratyahara – Remove the senses from external stimuli.

7. Asana – seated meditation.

8. Dharana – Focusing on one object.

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Filed under: Beauty - Bath, Body, Yoga by Dee
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Children are becoming victims of obesity more and more each year. Obesity carries with it many health risks. Adults should help kids to get fit and stay that way if they are to learn healthy habits for a lifetime of better health. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that children receive an hour of physical activity each day in order to get fit and to stay fit. There are several keys to getting kids to want to do what has to be done to be fit and stay that way. Making physical activity fun is one such key.

Kids will do what is fun and what is interesting to them. If you make physical activity look like something fun, they will do it without complaint. If you tell them it is good for them, they may just balk at doing it. Activities that most kids love to do include dancing, using a mini-trampoline, obstacle courses, and games of competition. During the hot weather months if you can design fitness around some kind of water sport you will have a sure winner on your hands.

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Filed under: Children's Health, Exercise & Fitness by Dee
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If you want a conditioned body, or want to increase your strength, endurance or coordination than consider Pilates. Athletes and gymnasts use Pilates to build muscles, flexibility and improve circulation. Hollywood uses Pilates to sculpt lean, photogenic bodies.

The founder of Pilates, Joseph Pilates was frail as a child, suffering from asthma. During WWI, he designed exercises to help soldiers who were immobilized to regain muscles and mobility after bed rest. He incorporated the mind-body formats found in yoga and Chinese martial arts. Joseph Pilates believed that movement training could manage pain with non-weight bearing exercises that improved muscle strength without causing harm.

There are two methods used when doing Pilates including mat exercises and various machines that are designed to strengthen the body using resistance. The key to Pilates is making your movements smooth, purposeful and with control. Originally Pilates was designed as a system that utilizes both the mat and equipment. Individuals will achieve the most benefit if they work the entire system. It is important to remember whom the system was first designed for: those who were injured or ill.

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Filed under: Exercise & Fitness by Dee
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Hoodia is a prickly plant called a succulent, which closely resembles the cactus family. Bearing large odorous blooms, the hoodia plant has been used for ages by the San tribe of South Africa. The San people, also commonly known as bushmen, use hoodia by chewing on the root during long desert trips.

The appetite suppressant qualities of the hoodia plant were discovered by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, or CSIR, in 1996. The CSIR were performing a study of the natural foods eaten by the bushmen and happened to discover the amazing potential the hoodia plant offered regarding weight loss. Hoodia was first tested by being fed to animals, who lost weight after eating it.

In 1997, the Council was able to isolate the specific ingredient found in hoodia that caused the weight loss. They licensed the patent for this ingredient to the Phytopharm company, who named it P57. Currently Phytopharm is working to develop energy bars and drinks than contain hoodia.

These products are estimated to hit the market in 2008.

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Filed under: Herbs For Health, Diet and Weight Loss by Dee
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Any form of physical exercise can be a great way to reduce stress. By regularly going to a gym, for a run or competing in a team sport, an outlet is created that gives you the opportunity to focus on an enjoyable activity and literally forget about the day to day events that may contribute to stress in your life.

By doing physical exercise the body will inevitably get fitter and stronger. A fit person is less likely to get sick and tired especially during stressful periods. As a person becomes fitter, their self esteem and self worth will naturally increase. This also reduces the likely hood of succumbing to stress and in fact will typically have a better chance of coping with stressful situations.

Competitive forms of exercise can also help reduce stress. Normally, competitive sport will require participants to regularly train, set goals and work in a team. They are also required to learn how to cope with stressful moments during a game as well deal with both victory and defeat. Such activities emulate real life situations and therefore will help you to deal with the challenges that life may bring you.

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Filed under: Exercise & Fitness, Stress & Relaxation by Dee
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Prayer is a direct way of way of communicating and conversing with God. Prayer is a spiritual exercise that helps strengthen your own spirit as well your connection to God. The more you pray the more intimate your relationship with God becomes. It involves more than just asking for help. You can discuss the happenings of your day; you can give thanks to him for all his divine blessings; you can ask him to share his blessings with your family and the whole world; you can even use it as a way to listen to God.

The use of prayer can be a great form of stress relief. However it requires that you believe in God and that you have faith that he knows what is best for you and most importantly that he will look after you. By praying to God for help, especially during stressful periods, during your darkest hours, you can rest assured that God is listening to you and will help. No matter how hopeless your situation may be, have belief that miracles can and do happen. This ultimately gives you hope and the strength to carry on in your time of need.

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Filed under: Exercise & Fitness, Mind and Spirit by Dee
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What is TeenSlim?

TeenSlim is a complex herbal remedy, especially developed for teenagers by a Clinical Psychologist. TeenSlim is formulated to assist teenagers to maintain healthy weight goals, as well as cleanse the system, thereby preventing skin breakouts and boosting energy levels. Combined with a healthy lifestyle and diet, TeenSlim helps adolescents maintain healthy slim bodies without compromising growth. For the overweight teenager, TeenSlim will also help ensure healthy liver functioning, optimal breakdown of dietary fat, healthy metabolism and healthy digestion, thereby assisting in the overall weight loss plan.

Like all Native Remedies products, TeenSlim is developed with care by our practicing Clinical Psychologist, is 100% natural and manufactured according to the highest pharmaceutical standards. Individual ingredients are well-researched and have been especially chosen for their high safety profile in remedies for adolescents.

How has TeenSlim helped other teenagers?

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Filed under: Children's Health, Herbs For Health, Diet and Weight Loss by Dee
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When it comes to promoting relaxation and reducing stress, nothing beats yoga. Unfortunately this isn’t the case for everyone. Most people who quit yoga think they fail because they are unable to get the positions and technique right. In fact, the reason they fail is that they put too much importance on getting the positions and technique right.

I do not profess to be a master of yoga. In fact, I am a beginner, with very little skill. However I have taught drumming for many years, and the pitfalls are similar. Here is my advice for yoga beginners.

Week 1 – Enjoy the activity:

Grab a beginner yoga video and set up your mat in a place that you can be comfortable and alone (there’s no room for self-consciousness in this step). Go through the exercises, but act as though you are a six year old having fun, rather than an adult worrying about technique. Try all of the positions, don’t worry if there are some you can’t perform right away, modify as necessary.

Week 2 – Examine the sensations:

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Filed under: Exercise & Fitness, Stress & Relaxation, Yoga by Dee
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You hear talk of the possibility that food can increase metabolism. Do you ever wonder if the talk is true?

The truth is that any food will increase your metabolism in the first hour after the food is eaten. Protein foods require approximately 25% more energy than other foods to digest so they may rev up the metabolism a little bit more. This is why models eat a high-protein snack as a way to get their metabolism moving.

Studies have shown that when red pepper is eaten after high-fat foods, metabolism shows the most increase in rate. Another study, of athletes who ate red pepper with high-carbohydrate meals boosted their resting and active metabolic rates, but it does not have a lasting effect on the metabolic rate.

Green tea contains a substance called EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate). EGCG is a powerful antioxidant that may have the same kind of calorie-burning effect that is seen with hot pepper. 90 milligrams of EGCG taken with 50 milligrams of caffeine that is taken with meals boosted 24-hour energy expenditure by 4%.

Caffeine alone does not show the same results. The effect that green tea has as yet not been proven to have any significant weight loss effect though.

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Filed under: Diet and Weight Loss by Dee
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