Walking and metabolic rate

Walking burns calories, and the faster you walk, the more you burn. But speed isn't the only factor in losing weight by walking. You "have to reach 65 to 70 percent of your body's maximum heart rate to substantially improve your fitness and burn serious calories," according to "The Complete Guide to Walking." Because people burn calories differently, your weight, metabolism and intensity of exercise are also factors in burning 3,500 calories to lose 1 pound.

Music Therapy and Visual Processing

Music Therapy and Visual Processing

Visual neglect is the inability to recognize objects in part of the visual field due to lesions in the visual cortex. Specifically, a lesion in one hemisphere produces neglect in the opposite visual field (so a stroke in the left visual cortex would result in one being unable recognize objects in the right visual field, and vice versa). In one study of stroke patients experiencing visual neglect, listening to pleasant music resulted in both better mood and a statistically significant improvement in their ability to describe the color and shape of geometric objects presented via computer. No such effects were observed when patients sat in silence or when they were presented with music that they did not like.

Further examination with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) confirmed that listening to pleasant music activated a number of different brain areas, including those involved in visual processing.

Draw Upon That Higher Power

There is a Higher Power, and the Power can do everything for you. Draw upon it and experience its great helpfulness. Why be defeated when you are free to draw upon that Higher Power? State your problem. Ask for a specific answer. Believe that you are getting that answer. Believe that now, through God’s help, you are gaining power over your difficulty.

This Higher Power is constantly available. If you are open to it, it will rush in like a mighty tide. It is there for anybody under any circumstances or in any condition. This tremendous inflow of power is of such force that in its inrush it drives everything before it, casting out fear, hate, sickness, weakness, moral defeat, scattering them as though they had never touched you, refreshing and re-strengthening your life with health, happiness and goodness.

Prescription For Heartache

There is indeed a “prescription” for heartache. One element in the prescription is physical activity. The sufferer must avoid the temptation to sit and brood. A sensible program which substitutes physical activity for such fruitless brooding reduces the strain on the area of the mind where we reflect, philosophize and suffer mental pain. Muscular activity utilizes another part of the brain and therefore shifts the strain and gives relief.

Whatever the character of your heartache, one of the first steps is to resolve to get back into the mainstream of life’s activities. Take up your old associations. Form new ones. Get busy walking, riding, swimming, playing—get the blood to coursing through your system. Lose yourself in some worthwhile project. Fill your days with creative activity and emphasize the physical aspect of activity. Employ healthy mind-relieving busyness, but be sure that it is of a worthwhile and constructive nature. Superficial escapism through feverish activity, as, for example, parties and drinking, merely deadens pain temporarily and does not heal.

An excellent and normal release from heartache is to give way to grief. It is natural to cry when pain or sorrow comes. This is a relief mechanism provided in the body by Almighty God and should be used. A good cry is a release from heartache. I should warn, however, that this mechanism should not be used unduly nor allowed to become habitual. Should that happen, it partakes of the nature of abnormal grief and could become a psychosis.

A secret of curing heartache is to be as normal and natural as possible. This does not imply disloyalty or indifference. This policy is important in avoiding a state of abnormal grief. Normal sorrow is a natural process and its normality is evidenced by the ability of the individual to return to his usual pursuits and responsibilities and continue therein as formerly.

The deeper remedy for heartache, of course, is the curative comfort supplied by trust in God. Inevitably the basic prescription for heartache is to turn to God in an attitude of faith and empty the mind and heart to Him. Perseverance in the act of spiritual self-emptying will finally bring healing to the broken heart.

Another profoundly curative element in the prescription for heartache is to gain a sound and satisfying philosophy of life and death and deathlessness.

Peaceful mind generates power

The essence of the secret lies in a change of mental attitude. One must learn to live on a different thought basis, and even though thought change requires effort, it is much easier than to continue living as you are. The life of strain is difficult. The life of inner peace, being harmonious and without stress, is the easiest type of existence. The chief struggle then in gaining mental peace is the effort of revamping your thinking to the relaxed attitude of acceptance of God’s gift of peace.

A primary method for gaining a mind full of peace is to practice emptying the mind. At least twice a day, empty your mind of fears, hates, insecurities, regrets and guilt feelings. To prevent unhappy thoughts from sneaking in again, immediately fill your mind with creative and healthy thoughts. At intervals during the day practice thinking a carefully selected series of peaceful thoughts. Let mental pictures of the most peaceful scenes you have ever witnessed pass across your mind, as, for example, the silvery light of the moon falling upon rippling waters, or the sea washing gently upon soft shores of sand. Such peaceful thought images will work upon your mind as a healing medicine.

There is No Growth Without Discontent

Your Higher Self always knows what is best for you. All you need to do is to assert that you want something better than you have right now. Realize that there is no growth without discontent. While it is important to live in the present moment and accept “what is”, it is also important to grow from where we are. Study your dissatisfaction very carefully because it will tell you something about yourself. Your life is an ever-changing canvas. What are you going to paint on it? Are you going to paint lack and limitation?
Because if you do your canvas is going to reflect lack and limitation.

Building Positive Self-esteem

Do Something for Others Who Cannot Repay

You in Cash or Kind

 

Dr. Karl Menninger, a world-renowned psychiatrist, was once asked, "What would you advise someone if you knew that person was going to have a nervous breakdown?" The audience expected Dr. Menninger to advise consulting a professional. But he didn't. He said, "I would advise that person to lock home, go to the other side of town, find someone in need and help that person. By doing that we get out of our own way." A lot of times we get in our own way, don't we?