How to keep healthy

1. Breathe with the trees
Whenever you breathe out, the plants and trees are taking the breath in. Whenever you take a breath in, plants and trees are taking the breath out. We are exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide, we are breathing together. We are sharing the same molecules and we are communicating. We are feeding and building each other. Because we are one. Next time you find yourself close to a tree or a plant, focus on this idea. Breathe together with it. This breathing exercise will help you not only relax but connect with nature in no time.
2. walk bare foot
If we want to stay grounded, we have to touch the ground. Walking barefoot is a great practice because it strengthens our feet, keep us aware of our surrounding and walking. The ground also absorbs free electrons through our feet, which has an antioxidant effect. Research has shown that walking barefoot also helps with sleep disturbances and stress. All of this should be enough motivation for you to take off your shoes and take big steps toward grass lawn, sandy beach or nearby park and reconnect with Mother Earth.
3. Grow a garden/plant
My story of mushroom farm gives a powerful example of how careful observation of a life cycle fosters joy and connection with nature. Don’t wait any longer. Plant a garden. It can be a community garden, tiny balcony garden or anything that you are able to manage. If you don’t have space for a garden, a few jars of herbs and spices are equally effective. I have a veggie membership at the local farm, which is terrific because it provides benefits of gardening (grounding, reconnection with nature, a joy of new life sprouting and yes, fresh veggies) without necessary hard work, so consider that option, too. Finally, you can always go to a park and see what is going on with the plants on a regular basis. Either way, this practice will sparkle your sense of wonder, gratitude and remind you that miracles are happening slowly, naturally and all around us.
4. Play with a pet
Pets are cool and playful and cute and funny and they have their own personalities and encounter each moment with joy. They also remind us to do the same. Each animal embodies numerous virtues and qualities that stem from Mother Nature. Animals remind us how to be better humans. Foster loving relationships with pets and other animals and you will be happier and more fulfilled.
5. Eat seasonally
We’ve collectively been fighting to have all types of food available on the shelves of Walmart year long. And we made it. We can buy pretty much anything at any time of the year. Except that it sucks. Watermelons that you buy around Christmas (assuming that you live on the Northern hemisphere) have traveled half of the world to get where you are. They are full of chemicals and preservatives that keep them in a good shape. Not to even mention the fuel consumption needed for their transport. It’s not a very green eating option.
The solution: eat seasonally. Go to farmers’ market and pick up the stuff that is in the season. Now (I am writing this on July 21st on the Northern hemisphere) is the perfect time for watermelons, melons, zucchini, tomatoes, corn, asparagus, aubergines, peaches, nectarines and many more goodies. When we are eating seasonally, we are minimizing our impacts on the environment, we are eating healthier and we are connecting with nature. When we eat fruit and veggies that are in season, all of our five senses are reminded: “Hey, it’s the summer! Enjoy.” And we dive into the magic of the present moment and the season we are in.
6. Honor the seasons
Nature does not function like a factory. Each natural process is seasonal and cyclical. First, we have 4 seasons: spring summer, fall, and winter. Then there are also lunar cycles. Circadian cycles are pretty clear: every day is a new cycle. Women are well aware of their menstrual cycles. Masters of martial arts will tell you that every action consists of three phases: preparation, execution, and recovery. In our lives, we also have seasons and phases. Our lives are not straight lines with an upward slope. Our lives are rather series of phases and cycles and seasons, weird, deformed spirals in which we repeat the lessons and become who we are. Why do we then expect to feel the same way and do the same things regardless of the season? Why are we constantly skipping recovery, hibernation, winter phases of everything and expect to consistently be productive and bear fruit? It is impossible, unnatural, even counter productive. (I covered this topic in the post linked below.)
How can we honor the seasons better? First, let’s reconnect with nature and acknowledge in which season we are in. Then let’s embrace the beauty and transience of each season. Let’s be present with ourselves, wherever we are. And then we can let it go and transition to a new season gracefully and embrace its beauty. Rest, hibernation, recovery and seemingly unproductive parts of the cycle are preparation for something bigger and better and thus should be welcomed.
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7. Slow down
Everything in nature happens slowly, gradually and without a struggle. Nature is never in the rush and always gets everything done. To connect with nature we have to leave our neck-breaking pace of life behind, learn how to slow down and dive into a present moment. If we want to enjoy anything, a bowl of ice cream or a beautiful sunset, we have to slow down and be present. Too often we think that we will miss out if we don’t speed up. Ironically, the truth is that if we don’t slow down, we miss out on all the beauty in front of us.
Take a slow walk and give yourself time to look, listen and absorb what is around you. Sit in the park and breathe deeply and slowly. Water your garden carefully and without rush, like it’s not just another chore on your to-do list. To connect to nature we have to tune into its gentle and pleasant pace.
8. Sit by the water
60% of our bodies consists of water. 70% of our planet is water. It is not surprising then that we have a special and beautiful connection with the water. Water has a magical power to make us calm, present and observant. Solely the act of coming close to the water brings us into the state of mind that Wallace Nichols calls “Blue Mind”, aware, peaceful and contemplative. (He also defines two other states of mind: Red Mind-anxious, crazy busy, and Grey Mind- lethargic.) When we get into the water, hundreds of our muscles that are resisting gravity relax immediately and we feel held and supported. Our reconnection with nature can be done through the water. Sit by the river, lake, sea or ocean, whichever is the most available. Get into the water. Swim. Surf. Step into the sea or lake. Also, for more info on Blue Mind and science of water, check out the interview with Wallace Nichols at UnmistakableCreative, it is quite amazing.
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9. Take photos
Photography is an amazing practice that makes us appreciate the visual beauty of the world around us. It makes us more perceptive, mindful and appreciative. Start a photo album named “Nature” and capture whatever in nature grabs your attention: leaves, flowers, trees, birds, butterflies, animals, beaches, landscapes, sunsets. There is a myriad of ideas, just open your eyes.
10. Come to your senses and enjoy
Mother Nature gratifies all of our five senses, all we have to do is to tune in. We already talked about the visual beauty in the idea #9. Take your headphones out and listen to birds, crickets, the wind in the canopies of the trees. Feel the scent of lavender, pine trees and the sea under the rays of the sun. Touch the tree bark, feel the breeze in your hair and the grass underneath your bare feet (idea #2). Take a nice bite of juicy watermelon and relax

There are many ways to improve your gut microbiome, including:

• Eat a diverse range of foods: This can lead to a diverse microbiome, which is an indicator of good gut health. ...
  
  
• Eat fermented foods: Fermented foods such as yogurt, sauerkraut and kefir all contain healthy bacteria, mainly Lactobacilli, and can reduce the amount of disease-causing species in the gut ( 52 ...
  
  
• Limit your intake of artificial sweeteners: Some evidence has shown that artificial sweeteners like aspartame increase blood sugar by stimulating the growth of unhealthy bacteria like Enterobacteriaceae in the gut ...
  
  

Welcome to therapy TikTok, where a steady stream of mental health professionals are trying to meet an anxious generation of young people where they are on social media. Gone are the soft-voiced analysts perched beside tissue boxes and a couch. 

• Find a routine and stick to it
  
• winter gets to an end, get outside
  
• Make sure you don't overload yourself with information
  

MurielB a écrit:

Bears account for more than half the population. Rather boringly, they follow the solar cycle, rising with the sun and winding down in the evening. They also tend to be useless immediately after lunch.

Wolves prefer to get up late and are more energetic at night.

Lions get up early, work furiously in the morning, tail off after midday and are in bed just as the wolves are coming out to play.

And dolphins? The most unfortunate category of all: poor sleepers who are often irritable and find it hard to work in the afternoon. Arezzolo says they account for 10% of the population.

It wasn’t so long ago that fat people were considered healthy. Doctors were far more worried about underweight Americans, many of whom were too poor to afford enough calories. But as farms industrialized and food became cheaper, the tables began to turn. Shortly after World War II, it became clear that eating too much food led to just as many problems as not eating enough. Insurance companies noticed that their fattest policyholders were significantly more likely to die early than those of average weight. They searched for a way to measure excess fat and hit upon a simple formula developed in 1832 by a Belgian statistician, mathematician, and astronomer named Adolphe Quetelet: Simply divide a person’s weight by the square of his height. This formula, known as body mass index (BMI), spread from insurers to health researchers and finally, in the 1980s, entered the clinical realm.

Mother jones a écrit: A higher BMI doesn’t necessarily mean you’re less healthy. In fact, patients with heart disease and metabolic disorders whose BMIs classify them as overweight or mildly obese survive longer than their normal and underweight peers. 

The Dosi limit for maximum life span is about 25% longer than Jeanne Calment lived. So if you’re planning to beat it (and her), you need three important things. First is good genes, which makes living to be more than a hundred unassisted a good bet. Second, an excellent diet and exercise plan, which can add up to 15 years to life expectancy. And lastly, a breakthrough in turning our knowledge of the biology of ageing into treatments and medicines that can increase healthy life span.

There should be a relationship between your chance of death and how rapidly and completely you recover from illness. This parameter is a measure of your ability to maintain homeostasis – your normal physiological equilibrium – and is known as resilience. In fact, ageing can be defined as the loss of ability to maintain homeostasis. Typically, the younger the person, the better they are at recovering rapidly from health problems

In New Zealand they rub noses, Tibetans stick out their tongues,in Zambia they like to squeeze thumbs. On the Polynesian island of Tuvalu they sniff cheeks. Maasai tribespeople of Kenya are known to spit on the ground. In certain parts of India, people greet their elders by touching their feet.

Over the course of history, human beings have developed some strikingly varied greetings During the global pandemic these were scaled back drastically for fear of infection. The more intimate ones may change forever

Dr Mcgone a écrit:
"the nerve fibre ignites areas of the brain related to the reward system. There is a release of oxytocin, a hormone that plays a fundamental role in our social attitude. It also affects the level of dopamine, which is part of the reward system; it releases serotonin, which is related to our well-being and happiness; and finally, it can have an impact on stress as it lowers our heart rate."

There’s a growing number of research findings that show an association between optimism and health as you age.
In a new study focused on daily stressors, optimism helped limit how older men experience stressful situations or impacted how they interpreted scenarios as stressful. Day-to-day stressors, such as having to do chores around the house, were examined and being able to better handle these stressors was linked to better overall emotional wellbeing, as reported in news-medical.net.
The study looked at 233 men and spanned over a course of 14 years, starting with an optimism questionnaire and followed by analyzing daily stressors and mood more than a decade later. For more about the study, and how looking at how optimistic people handle stress differently helped reveal the association with good health when one is older, you can read about the Boston University School of Medicine research here.
Read more:

The Secret Behind the Long Life Expectancy of Japanese Men
10 Experts Share Their Tips to Aging Well
New Research Shows That Even Household Chores Can Help Your Heart

• Practice sports to relieve stress 
  
• do not eat fried food and adopt a Cretan diet 
  
• eat a lot of fish 
  
• Have a solid breakfast based on dried or fresh fruit and eggs for example
  
• avoid sugar
  

Speaking two languages provides the enviable ability to make friends in unusual places. A new study suggests that bilingualism may also come with another benefit: improved memory in later life.
Studying hundreds of older patients, researchers in Germany found that those who reported using two languages daily from a young age scored higher on testsof learning, memory, language and self-control than patients who spoke only one language.
The findings, published in the April issue of the journal Neurobiology of Aging, add to two decades of work suggesting that bilingualism protects against dementiaand cognitive decline in older people.
“It’s promising that they report that early and middle-life bilingualism has a beneficial effect on cognitive health in later life,” said Miguel Arce Rentería, a neuropsychologist at Columbia University who was not involved in the study. “This would line up with the existing literature.”

 
People who spoke two languages daily in their youth tended to score higher on memory tests later in life, the researchers found.

Tessa West a écrit:“During the pandemic, we went into a really awkward period where we started to just elbow each other instead of hugging. And now no one knows whether hugs are back.