Sheridan Randolph’s Neighborhood

Are You Suffering From Panic Attacks?

Michael
Dec 5, 2008
7 comments

Standing in line at the grocery store you start to feel your heart race. Within moments your hands are sweating, your breathing becomes short and rapid, you feel hot, dizzy and overwhelmed with a sense of fear.

What is this sensation? Where is it coming form? If you have experienced similar sensations in the past and especially if you have begun changing your life and routine in the fear of experiencing it again, you may be suffering from Panic Attacks.

WHAT ARE PANIC ATTACKS?

Panic is a physical reaction that is a response to stress. Often called the 'fight or flight' response, panic is a normal response to danger and is actually your body's cue to get out of harm's way. However, when panic sets in when there is no source of danger it can be linked to two causes - stress or possibly, a panic disorder.

The following symptoms are common during a panic attack:

- rapid heartbeat

- shortness of breath or inability to breath

- dizziness or nausea

- sweating, shaking or trembling

- a sense of fear or dread

- tingling sensation in the fingers or toes

- chest pain

- hot flashes or chills

- thinking you are going to die or go craz

WHAT CAUSES PANIC ATTACKS?

Stress in our lives is not usually caused by a physical danger; in fact most stress is caused by completely normal daily activities and is not harmful to us. Too much stress, however, is dangerous to our body and in some cases it can cause panic attacks, particularly if we have experienced an additional trauma or burden such as the loss of a loved one or big change such as a new job or move. While normal stress can cause anxiety, when panic attacks become regular a panic disorder may be the cause.

Panic disorder may or may not be directly related to over stress. Some researchers are linking the panic attacks caused by panic disorder to a physical cause. If this is the case you need to seek professional help in dealing with the symptoms.

Sadly most individuals suffering from panic disorder do not get properly diagnosed. Many begin to suffer the physical and psychological effects of changing their lives, their jobs and their recreational activities to accommodate their panic attacks before finding a physician that can properly diagnose their condition. The symptoms of panic attacks may also lead a person to believe they have a dangerous physical condition and seek treatment for various unrelated diseases and conditions.

CAN PANIC DISORDER BE TREATED?

If you think you have been experiencing panic attacks you will need to be diagnosed by your physician or referred to a psychiatrist. While the physical symptoms may not be connected to a mental condition, often the fear of having panic attacks in public leads to phobias that may need to be treated as well.

A combination of medication and therapy may be used to combat the panic attacks and help a person to overcome related phobias.

The good news is that panic disorder responds very well to treatment and those who receive treatment can lead healthy, normal lives.

Michael B. Roth, DC

Stress Managment: Eight Tips for Busy Moms

Michael
Dec 3, 2008
15 comments

Moms are some of the busiest people on the planet. From working a 9-5 job to getting the kids off the school or from attending soccer games to chaperoning a slumber party, a mom's feet never seem to stay still. Some moms are responsible for taking care of their aging parents as well.

With this almost frantic pace, increased stress levels can be a natural result. Stress can impact many areas of life such as work, family, and other relationships. Stress can cause one to experience irritability, impatience, and distractibility. For busy moms, stress management is a necessity. Here are eight tips to assist in living a more stress free life.

1. Determine, no matter what, to create time for self. For some busy moms, maybe it's a soothing bubble bath at the end of the day. For others, it could be a quick trip to the local Nail Salon. The activity really doesn't matter as long as busy moms take some time for themselves.

2. Listen to calm, soothing music on the way to work, while at work, and while going to sleep. Music has a way of calming and soothing the mind body.

3. Practice deep abdominal breathing periodically throughout the day. Breath in deeply through the nose pulling the belly button toward the spine, hold for a few seconds, and then slowly release. Busy moms will be pleasantly surprised at how this simple technique can result in a more relaxed body and mind. This can be done in any environment.

4. Take time to exercise. Exercise helps to increase self-esteem, decrease depression, increase concentration and energy, and gives one a greater sense of control over stress. Hitting the local gym is not always necessary. Taking a 15-minute walk around the neighborhood, taking walks on lunch breaks, taking the steps instead of an elevator, and parking farther away when shopping are examples of how busy moms can squeeze in exercise during the day.

5. Eat Healthy. There are foods that promote calmness and foods that increase stress levels. Busy moms can ask themselves if they are eating too much sugar and caffeine, and if they are getting enough protein. They can also evaluate if they are eating plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables and staying away from refined and processed foods. Healthy eating is very important for any busy mom. Taking a look at diets and making the necessary changes can result in increased optimal health.

6. Call a friend. For any busy mom, it is always important in life to have at least one relationship where they can just vent and know that a listening ear and unconditional acceptance will be given.

7. Practice Thinking Calmly. Everyone has a favorite place that is peaceful, soothing, and calm. When stress levels increase, busy moms can take a mental break and visualize that special place. They can take note of the sights, sounds, and smells. It is important to continue to do this until relaxation is felt. Busy moms will notice that the stress they are experiencing will be less and more manageable.

8. Have a sense of humor. We all are familiar with the saying, "Laughter is the best medicine." This is so true. Be willing to laugh at personal mistakes. Watch a funny movie. Share a joke with a friend. In other words, lighten up. It will make such a difference.

Busy moms can follow the above eight tips for a more stress free life!

Michael B. Roth, DC

Alleviating Stress – The Basics

Michael
Dec 2, 2008
12 comments

As Australian television personality Andrew Denton has noted - "PRESSURE AND STRESS IS THE COMMON COLD OF THE PSYCHE."

Stress is a fact of life and a certain amount of stress, unlike the common cold, can even be good for you - but too many stressful incidents can prevent you from reaching your full potential.

There is no magic wand to wave away stress - it takes a determined effort to control your lifestyle to prevent stress overload. However, the basics of alleviating stress are easy to arrange and practice - it's not rocket science - it just takes time and more than a little effort.

First, plan ahead - be organized and prepared. There are close-at-hand weapons available to you in your battle against stress - a pencil and a piece of note paper.

Many times stress is energized because we allow a tidal wave of different and conflicting thoughts to flood our mind making us believe the assignments ahead are too overpowering.

Prepare for tomorrow the night before.

Take the time to sit down with a pencil and paper and list all the assignments you feel are important to complete the next day. When all the tomorrow tasks are listed, redo and list each item in order of importance. Finally, mark the time you think it would take to complete each task - review the total time and when you reach the time limit you feel comfortable with, draw a line across the page - that's tomorrow's schedule.

One other important item when completing the final schedule - it's vital that your allow time for relaxing,exercising and to eat a healthy meal - three more important weapons in alleviating stress.

"IN TIMES OF GREAT STRESS OR ADVERSITY, IT'S ALWAYS BEST TO KEEP BUSY, TO PLOW YOUR ANGER AND YOUR ENERGY INTO SOMETHING POSITIVE" - Lee Iacocca

Something positive - great advice - but again, not easy. Maintaining a positive attitude also takes a great deal of work and commitment, but by following two basic fundamentals of positive thinking,you can detour your life into a new affirmative direction that will lower the stress level no matter what the situation and, as a bonus,make you a happier, more contented individual.

First and foremost - stop all the negative talk. Start today - every time you utter a negative thought, repeat what you said and change the negative into a positive. Make a game of it. Tell those you trust how you are trying to change your lifestyle and have them yell out "negative" every time you utter a negative thought. If they catch you on such a miscue - you have to give them a dime or some such reward.

Repetition is the key to changing negative thoughts into positive thoughts. Come up with your own personal mantra you can silently repeat to yourself to constantly remind you of your new positive, less stressful lifestyle - the word "POSITIVE" is a good one to start with.

Secondly,stay away from those who view life pessimistically. Those who are unenthusiastic about life can drag you down faster than a freighter's anchor - join the people who make you happy - better yet - be around people who you can talk to about your feelings.

One more basic fundamental - find the humor in it - take time to laugh loud and often - it's the best medicine for alleviating stress.

Again from Lee Iacocca - "STRESS IS WHEN YOU WAKE UP SCREAMING AND YOU REALIZE YOU HAVEN'T FALLEN ASLEEP YET."

Michael B. Roth, DC

Do you know how to deal with stress?

Michael
Nov 28, 2008
17 comments

Somebody once said,” Stress is what happens when your mind thinks one thing and your mouth thinks another”. It is so easy to get into stressful situations just by trying to please people and agreeing to do those things that we don't really want to do.

Too many of us spend our lives dealing with awkward situations and problems, both at home and at work. This leads to too much stress and can sometimes drive one literally over the edge. But before we deal with stress we have to realize that we need a certain amount of stress in our lives in order to function properly.

So the 'trick' is to find a balance between too much stress and too little. You have to realize that a certain amount of stress is good and that we use it to push ourselves and enhance our performance or productivity at exactly the right moment.

It is important to have the right frame of mind when dealing with stress and try and keep away from people who are 'over stressed' it can be infectious. When the world is going mad there are always those who keep their head. Mix with these people and find out how they are in control all the time.

Sometimes it is our own self-confidence, or lack of, that causes us anxiety and a good way to combat this is by practicing a few deep breathes. When first starting out on a sales career a good tip is just before you are due to meet a client, find a quiet corner and breathe in for a count of seven and then, slowly, breathe out for a count of eleven. Just doing this a few times will lower a racing heartbeat and put you in a more relaxed and confident state.

Another little trick you can use to lower your stress levels and be in control of your life is to control your thoughts. What does that mean? Well, most of us are stressed because we are thinking stressful thoughts all the time. So it's simple, change your thoughts and think something else. It really is that simple, it's not easy to do at first, but every time you think bad or stressful thoughts turn them around and think good positive thoughts. You will be amazed at how this simple technique can lower your anxiety levels and improve the quality of your life.

Hopefully, you found these tips for dealing with stress useful and don't forget if all else fails two or three weeks in the sunshine will work wonders.

Michael Roth, DC

Thanksgiving

Michael
Nov 27, 2008
13 comments

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! Enjoy your day!!!!

Emotional Eating - the Dangers and Solutions

Michael
Nov 26, 2008
13 comments

Food is a source of nourishment and energy. Without food we would not be able to perform our daily activities. Our muscles would wither, our nervous system would fail. We all need food.

However, food also has another role in our lives - a role of comfort and entertainment. Culturally and instinctively we prepare and serve foods to comfort those who have experienced loss, to celebrate joy or to show friendship and love.

WHAT IS EMOTIONAL EATING?

Seeing food as more than just a source of energy and enjoying it simply for the satisfaction it gives is not wrong. In fact science shows that food can promote good feelings by chemical reactions caused in our brains. What IS a problem is when an individual cannot experience pain, anxiety, joy or even boredom without turning to food as means of dealing with those feelings, or they are obsessed with food, weight and dieting.

Emotional eaters turn to food as a source of distraction from dealing with feelings. However, eating these foods leads to feelings of guilt which can only be soothed with more eating, restrictive dieting, excessive exercise or purging.

Emotional eaters tend to value themselves based on their weight and how closely they've stuck to their 'ideal' diet. Because of this distorted relationship with food, foods are labeled "GOOD" and "BAD". Emotional eating can lead to serious eating disorders and depression.

HOW DO I KNOW IF I'M AN EMOTIONAL EATER?

Do you turn to food for reasons other than hunger? Are you obsessed with thoughts of food - whether you plan to eat it or are concentrating on restricting yourself from eating it?

Do you regularly try diets and fail - leading to guilt and further over eating? Do you think about or attempt to purge excess food by throwing up or using laxatives? Do you exercise compulsively when you think you've eaten too much?

HOW DO I OVERCOME EMOTIONAL EATING?

Since emotional eating is caused by looking to food as a coping strategy for emotional distress dieting can actually create more problems. When the emotional eater fails to stick to a diet they suffer feelings of guilt that can only be soothed with more food and in turn, more guilt or punishment.

Instead of trying to focus on what they are eating, the emotional eater needs to learn new skills for coping with stressful emotions. Often this requires the help of a Personal Coach or Psychotherapist who deals with emotional eating. It is only by finding replacements for the comfort food provided that the individual can put food into its rightful place and learn healthy eating habits that last a lifetime.

Michael Roth, DC

Reducing the Risk of Disease by Staying Healthy

Michael
Nov 25, 2008
12 comments

Staying healthy is something for which everyone must take as a personal duty. An important part of staying healthy is eating a nutritious and balanced diet. Staying healthy requires work, but the payback far outweighs the costs. Incorporating tips for staying healthy will help in avoiding the flu, colds, and other illnesses. Be sure to read through these tips for staying healthy especially if you value your health.

Protecting Against Disease

The body cannot protect itself against diseases alone, as it needs your help. All of the major causes of death such as cancer, stroke, lung disease and injury can be prevented by the things that you do. 65% of all deaths in adults are caused by heart disease, cancer and stroke. But many of the actions that cause these issues begin at an early age.

Evidence is rapidly accumulating to suggest that stress plays an important role in several types of chronic health problems especially cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal disorders, and psychological disorders. Other factors that put people at risk for disease include your age, your medical and family history, and individual choices that people make. What can you do to stay healthy and prevent disease?

Losing weight helps lower the risk of health problems especially people with diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Maintaining normal cholesterol levels with help prevent diseases and can help prevent circulation problems. If you quit smoking, you'll lower your risk for heart attack, stroke, nerve disease, kidney disease, and oral disease. It is important to talk to your doctor about how to reduce the risk factors of heart disease, including controlling your cholesterol.

Regular Exercise

Exercise can help prevent heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, osteoporosis, depression, and possibly colon cancer, stroke, and back injury. A high-fiber, low-fat diet and regular exercise can help you lose weight gradually and help you keep it off. Try to exercise for 30 to 60 minutes, 4 to 6 times a week, but any amount is better than none. Low-impact, moderate intensity exercise activities, such as walking and swimming, are great choices. Wellness is a way of living that highlights such preventive measures as eating a healthy diet; making exercise an enjoyable part of your life, and making self-care decisions that will improve the quality of your life.

Staying healthy requires moderation in everything that you do. Staying healthy physically and mentally is important to preventing many of the diseases that plague our society. Maintaining or adopting a healthy lifestyle as you get older can increase your chances of staying healthy and maintaining your independence. Whether you like playing sports, drawing, singing, writing stories, or just being funny, share your commitment to staying healthy with others and let's fight health problems that can be prevented.

Michael Roth, DC

Choosing Emotional Freedom with EFT

Michael
Nov 24, 2008
15 comments

Emotional Freedom Techniques, or EFT as it is most commonly known, is probably the most popular of a group of techniques collectively referred to as Energy Psychology (EP)

Energy Psychology achieves a psycho-therapeutic end, but it does so by working at an energetic level within the body, rather than the mental functions of the mind.

Some EP methods utilize Chakras in their emotional release work, while others, such as EFT, utilize the body's acupuncture system. EFT does this by gently tapping on acupuncture points to stimulate and "open" them, allowing an increase in the free flow of energy throughout our body. You are about to learn why this is so important in terms of our feelings.

The foundational principle behind EFT is what is referred to as "The Discovery Statement", and it states that the cause of all negative emotion is a disruption to the flow of energy in our body; more specifically, a disruption of energy flow within our acupuncture system.

Energetically speaking, our default settings are ones of wellbeing, freedom and ease. To the degree that we create and experience resistance to the flow of energy in our body, we create and experience lesser degrees of wellbeing and ease.

If we are experiencing severe distress, we can know that in that moment, we are experiencing massive resistance within our energy system.

A useful metaphor is to think of our energy system as like the plumbing in our house. Disruption within our energy system is not dissimilar to a "kink" in the garden hose. A small kink will disrupt the flow of water but not to any great degree.

If we think of ourselves in this situation, we experience this minor kink as feeling less than we would like to feel, but for the most part, we can function fully. It is just that our quality of what we are experiencing is less than what it could be.

And if we have a severely knotted hose, we experience much greater resistance and stronger, more painful feelings. What largely determines our subjective experience of life is the amount of resistance we routinely carry around with us.

Once we release this resistance, and EFT is without doubt one of the most powerful tools available today to do so, we feel better. More often than not this affect is immediate.

A big part of EFT's claim to fame is how quickly it can work. And a large part of its speed and effectiveness is that it targets the body rather than the mind. Now we all know as humans we have an almost infinite capacity to generate all kinds of emotional upheaval in our lives.

And you are probably also aware of how difficult it can be to try and find solutions to our problems when we are right in the middle of them, experiencing not just the problem, but also all of the negative less than useful feelings that go with it.

The beauty of EFT is that irrespective of the specific aspects and issues that may be involved in our individual problems, in EFT terms we are only ever dealing with one thing - disruption of the flow of energy in our body.

If we address this disruption and resistance rather than the symptomatic associated emotions (anger, fear, sadness etc) we free ourselves of the associated pain rather quickly and very often gain insight into the possible solution we are seeking.

Once the pain has been released, or at least eased, we are almost always capable of figuring out what we need to do to create the change that we want, in whatever areas of our life problems exist.

The major part of what leads to our apparent inability to deal with problematic areas in our life, is our inability to detach from the pain we are experiencing in relation to those problems.

When we experience strong painful feelings (they shouldn't be considered negative because they are offering us very useful and much needed feedback about what is going on around us) we are basically in a fight-flight survival situation. When this happens, our higher thought function switches off to a greater or lesser extent and we, all of a sudden, become incredibly resource-less.

This is not a mental or emotional issue at all, yet this is where most therapy is aimed. What this is is a neurological issue, as this fight-flight response is hard wired into our nervous system.

In EFT terms, it is an energetic issue, as the acupuncture system, or some specific pathway within it, becomes jammed leading to disrupted flow of energy and the resulting painful feelings.

So how does EFT resolve this energy disruption issue? The technique of EFT comprises of tapping a specific sequence of acupuncture points around the face, chest and hand. These particular points are situated towards the beginning or the end of the main acupuncture channels within the body. In total EFT utilizes 13 points in what is referred to as "The Basic Recipe".

Points are tapped gently for about 10 repetitions, and then you move onto the next point in the sequence. At the end of the Basic Recipe you evaluate how you are feeling to determine if you need to repeat the tapping sequence.

In most cases (the literature quotes 80% but most people experience a much higher percentage) there will be a dramatic reduction in the painful feelings. As unbelievable as this may sound very often you will find the pain has gone completely.

A problem that may have been an issue for years can potentially be released in minutes, if not seconds. Phobias are a classic example of the amazing results possible with EFT.

Phobias that have been with someone all their life can be treated and cleared very quickly when the body is treated rather than the mind.

Does EFT work all the time? Of course not. So far nothing really works all the time. Our understanding of the technique and how it works as well as sciences understanding of our bodies and minds and how they work, is far from complete.

As the creator of EFT, Gary Craig says "We are on the ground floor of a healing high-rise" There is much work and discovery still to do.

However, those who use this technique in a clinical setting, and their numbers are growing daily, will attest to the most amazing results in cases where nothing else has seemed to work.

EFT is not a cure all and shouldn't be looked at this way. What it is, is an incredibly powerful easy to learn and apply self-help tool, that with a little practice, will allow you to choose how you feel in any situation.

If emotional freedom is what you seek, there is no better tool than EFT to help you attain it.

Michael Roth, DC