Nurture Your Own

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time. ~J. Lubbock

More and more people are going green to save the environment. What you may not realize, however, is that going green can also improve your own personal health. Not only that, but it can also save you a lot of money.

For example, consider how much money you spend on grocery shopping in an average month. Is it a lot? For some families, it can be hundreds of dollars. Then, consider the other problems that come with buying grocery store foods. For example:

• You waste money on gas to go shopping.
• You have to spend a lot of time shopping.
• Most foods bought in stores have been chemically treated.
• Most foods bought in stores are over-packaged and too much packaging creates more waste.

The Alternative:
You might think that you have to buy all of your food at the grocery store, but you really don’t. You do have an alternative. That is, you can buy food from local farms and vegetable stands. In fact, you could do better than that by simply growing your own home garden.

A home garden is an excellent resource, especially if you like to cook. Here are a few of the advantages to growing your own food:

• It’s Cheaper
• It’s Fresher
• It’s Readily Available
• It’s Pesticide Free (If You Grow It Organically)

Green Cooking Practices:
Once you have the food, you need to shift focus to how you are cooking it. For example, you might try using a toaster oven. You can find plenty of toaster oven reviews online and many of the top products, such as Breville toaster oven models, are designed with healthy cooking options, such as broiling and baking.

Using small appliances, such as a toaster oven, will save you a lot of time, energy and money. However, there are some things that only large appliances can do. So, if you must cook with a large oven, at least do so efficiently. Don’t preheat it unless you have to and cook several things at once to make the best use of the space and the heat in the oven.

Clean While Going Green:
Another area of your home life that you can make green is how you clean. That goes for both your body and your home. As far as your body is concerned, cut back on chemical-filled soaps, shampoos, makeups and perfumes. Instead, opt for all natural skin and hair care alternatives.

When it comes to cleaning your home, you also have natural options, such as:

• Lemon
• Vinegar
• Honey
• Soda (For Cleaning Clogged Drains)

In fact, you would be amazed at what natural products are capable of. Many can clean and disinfect your home. Some can even remove stubborn stains, which commercial cleaning products may be unable to get rid of. Plus, natural products are far cheaper and usually already on hand for other reasons.

Cut Back Your Carbon Footprint:
Finally, you need to cut back your carbon footprint. One way to do that is to get energy-efficient home appliances. Another way is to get an electric or hybrid car, which is much more eco-friendly than a standard car. Of course, it’s always better if you can get where you’re going under your own power, by either walking or riding a bicycle.

So, as you can see, going green is easy and inexpensive. Walking is great exercise, using less chemicals in the home is healthier for you and cooking in an eco-friendly way will save you money and taste a lot better. Clearly, there’s no reason not to improve your health by going green.

Author Bio:
Chris C is a huge fan of the go green movement. He is the publisher of ToasterOvenGuide.com . Both Chris and his website are devoted to helping consumers achieve healthy living through green habits and minor life changes.икони

It’s bang, slam, go, chop-chop and similar words that denote the fast-paced
frenzy of living in a high expectation society or city. City living is great
with all the virtuous conveniences it offers, so what more could one ask
for?

Well, for me, it’s become draining. Almost as if fast-paced living has
sucked the life out of one’s soul and energy reserves. As if that were not
enough, the thought of all the pent-up frustrations we live with, with no
avenue of release, without anyone thinking you’ve just gone plain bonkers is
enough to drive one up the wall literally and figuratively.

Then comes the question of what such a stressful life does to our bodies. It
is almost as if our emotions become more fragile – we get angry more easily,
we lose our patience with the slightest things, or we plunge into depression
unconsciously, triggering more illnesses and diseases by simply the high
stress levels. I’ve been hearing of stories of cancer occurring in perfectly
healthy individuals with no history of the scary disease in their families.
Do we even realise what our fragile emotions are doing to our bodies? Do we
care enough to do something about it?

Scientific researches have been showing the connection between unhealthy
emotions such as fear and sickness. There are so many different diseases yet
science proves that more than 80% of today’s diseases are connected to
unhealthy emotions.

These emotions are called toxic emotions and create a chemical reaction
within the body that results in all types of sicknesses including multiple
sclerosis, lupus, diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, heart disease, and
more. Emotions affect our physical health through the autonomic nervous
system, which controls everything that happens in our bodies except
voluntary movement and conscious thought. The autonomic nervous system has
two parts: the sympathetic division, which prepares us to escape from
threats (the ‘fight or flight’ response) and the para sympathetic division,
which controls things like breathing, circulation and digestion while we get
on with other things. In healthy people these two systems work in harmony.

One of the best ways I have found to help with overwhelming emotions or
nervousness running through the body is to simply slow down and take
ourselves out of the ‘rat-race’ and take our time to simply breathe deeply
(which we often forget to do when we’re all stressed up). Calm your mind and
body with relaxation methods, such as meditation or similar practices. These
are useful ways to bring your emotions into balance. For example, you may do
it by exercising, stretching or breathing deeply when slowing down our
bodies and bring it into a more ‘peaceful state’. For city dwellers, the
biggest challenge is usually making the time to do this. However, I know
that it’s worth the commitment to regularly slow down every few days and
take the time out. This ensures that our emotions are not accumulating in
the toxic manner and we remain healthy in both mind and body.