Tag Archives: Happiness

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5 Tips For Building Healthy, Happy Children

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We have the power to determine how healthy we are by the choices we make with our bodies. Our bodies are equipped with an incredible ability to go towards health when they’re supplied with the right building materials. For optimal health, children should eat right, move more, and enjoy life to the fullest (which happens to be the same advice for us adults).

The idea behind these five daily strategies are to build healthier kids, because as we know healthier kids are happier kids, and happier kids are more successful.

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6 Tips For Establishing a Health Routine

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healthy routine

The key to maintaining optimal health is follow through. Start with something small like stretching each morning. And then follow through. If you succeed at an easy one, it will actually strengthen your willpower, thereby improving your ability to succeed at the next, more difficult one.

Once you have a series of successes under your belt, you will be better able to tackle the really tough ones, like changing your diet or working out. Here are 6 tips to get you started on creating a health routine that works for you:

1. Make a List, Check It Twice. List making is a good organizational strategy. Make a list as part of your daily health routine the night before. When you make a list of the things you’ll do the next day, such as going to the gym, attending that meeting, picking up vegetables for dinner in the evening, you’ll be clear about at least 80 percent of your day. Knowing what to expect can help you hit the ground running when the sun comes up.

2. Do The Most Important Thing First. Early in the morning (after your coffee of course), you’re likely to have the most energy, and the fewest distractions. Start your day by focusing without interruption on the most important or challenging task you can accomplish that day.

3. Set Goals and Limits. If goals are excessively restrictive or vague, you will be less likely to rise to the challenge. Establish clear nutrition and health goals (dessert two times a week; a half-hour walk five times a week, etc.). Consistency is key to success with anything in life but especially when it comes to your health. Keep track of the foods you eat each day for free with My Fitness Pal.

4. Stick to Your Plan. It’s important to have a habitual routine – and to follow through with it – so you can streamline your schedule. Do the same things in the same order at the same time each day. Try out a routine for a few days to see what works best for you. Keep up with your workouts and chiropractic adjustments, and develop a consistent routine for healthy eating. Once you experience how great your body is designed to feel and function – you will feel sluggish and unsettled if you start missing your adjustments, workouts or eating unhealthy – which in itself is a strong incentive to get back on track.

5. Focus Your Positive Energy. One great way to start your new morning routine is by taking a few quiet moments after you wake up to focus your positive energy for the day. You can achieve this through meditation, thinking positive thoughts, doing affirmations, or practicing visualization exercises. Studies have shown that regular meditation may lower blood pressure, boost the immune system, and help relieve stress and fatigue.

6. Stop worrying. “The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.” You can’t fully appreciate today if you worry too much about tomorrow. Realize that tomorrow is going to happen whether you worry about it or not. And since worry has never accomplished anything for anybody, redirect your mental energy elsewhere.


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The Importance of Play

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the importance of playExperts have long studied the benefits of play for children (allows them to use their creativity while developing their imagination, dexterity, and physical, cognitive, and emotional strength). Play is important to healthy brain and social development. It is through play that children at a very early age engage and interact in the world around them. In his book Play, author and psychiatrist Stuart Brown, MD, compares play to oxygen. He writes, “…it’s all around us, yet goes mostly unnoticed or unappreciated until it is missing.”

It’s easy to justify playtime for kids, its a normal activity for them – but what about us? The truth is that we -humans- are in fact the most neotenous species on the planet. Neoteny refers to the retention of immature qualities into adulthood. As in, humans retain the ability to imagine and play, and this gives us an evolutionary advantage in how flexible and adaptable we are. Bottom line meaning: we are uniquely designed to play throughout our entire lifetimes.

Unfortunately in our hurried lifestyle, playing can be seen as an indulgence – and instead this constant rushing around can be a source of constant stress and anxiety for some and can even contribute to depression for others. Play is crucial to our mental creativity, health and happiness. It lifts stress from us, refreshes us and recharges us. It restores our optimism. It renews our ability to accomplish our work. Plus, there is evidence that it does even more; play appears to allow our brains to exercise their very flexibility, to maintain and even perhaps renew the neural connections that embody our human potential to adapt and expand, evolve.

Play also allows us to be present in the moment – something that is so rare these days – that is the space of play, that lightness of being. When we embrace play, we claim a better quality of life for ourselves. We decrease stress. We connect better with those around us. We get out more and get more out of what we do. We find more fun and maybe even meaning. It’s important to remember that play can be almost anything – art, books, movies, music, comedy, daydreaming, sports, storytelling, you name it.

Any time you think play is a waste, remember that it offers some serious benefits for both you and your family. As Brown says in his book, “Play is the purest expression of love.”


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Why Do I Need Maintenance Chiropractic Care?

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maintenance chiropractic care

Every day more and more people are reevaluating their options when it comes to health care. They are realizing that wellness comes from within and that the best way to avoid illness and discomfort is to be “health conscious” in their daily lifestyles. In order to accomplish this we must first understand what it is we need to do to get and stay well.

The simple answer is that we need to adopt lifestyle behaviors that promote health – as opposed to those that lead to sickness. Because the truth is there is no drug that can fix our poor diet or remove the toxins from the processed food we eat. There is no drug that can undo our sedentary living or poor fitness – the answer is in our lifestyle choices. One major lifestyle choice we can adopt is to receive regular chiropractic adjustments, often called maintenance or wellness chiropractic care.

Understanding the reason for maintenance chiropractic care mandates an understanding of two major well documented concepts: 1) immobilization degeneration; and 2) the neurology of pain processing. A primary component of a subluxation (misalignment in the spine) is loss of normal motion in that area; and there is an immense body of research to support the ensuing degenerative process that will occur with this loss of motion and the logical conclusion of restoring movement to the spine.

You see, chiropractic is important for our health in many of the same ways that exercise is so crucial for our overall health and well-being. It’s all about movement. Movement feeds the brain, when we become misaligned we lose the normal motion of that spinal segment – which leads to degenerated joints and  decreases these movement- rich nutrients to the brain (proprioceptive signals).

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Can Chiropractic Help with Breastfeeding?

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chiropractic helps breastfeeding

We all know it is important for babies to get good nutrition so that they can be healthy and strong. However, some mothers find it really difficult to breastfeed for various reasons. It is so important that mothers understand that there are ways to improve the breastfeeding experience, and that chiropractic can offer a helping hand with many of these issues.

“It’s painful to breastfeed”

One of the reasons why it may be painful to breastfeed is that baby has a problem with TMJ function and/or the muscles around the jaw, including the tongue, which is causing baby to suck in a strange way that may cause pain for mom. An injury to the jaw can take place during the birthing process, especially with breech presentation, or a shoulder dystocia. Sometimes even a normal, incident-free birth can cause problems with the way the jaw moves and can create a lot of tension in the muscles in the area.

La Leche League identifies chiropractic as an effective option for babies damaged by vacuum or forceps, and for those whose muscles and bones are not working well together causing the baby to be in pain, or become a poor feeder. A poorly feeding baby does not drain the breast sufficiently, therefore the mom suffers the secondary impact of reduced milk production.

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