Okay so we know that waking up and doing things in the morning is the best way to achieve our goals in life. We can exercise, study, work, meditate, etc. much better than other times in the day. However, most of us feel pretty crap in the morning.

So what can we do about it? How can we wake up ready for work?

Update: You might want to check out this post that has advice from a Buddhist Yogi about waking up early.

Ways to wake up feeling fresh in the morning

Here are some things you can do in the short term and the long term so that you will wake up fresh and energetic in the morning. I’ve divided them up into three sections; (1) the night before and (2) during the night and (3) the morning.

The Night Before

1. Avoid coffee, red wine and chocolate the night before
To wake up fresh you need to get a good sleep and one of the best ways to ruin a good sleep is to upset your gut. You really need to keep it happy during the night.

Coffee, red wine and chocolate have been scientifically shown to disturb your sleep more than any other food. They upset your intestines in such a way that you will wake up constantly or have a very light sleep that doesn’t re charge you at all. Try not to have these things after lunch time.

2. Go to bed happy with your partner
One of the best ways to get a terrible sleep is to go to bed before you solve a problem with your partner. In my relationship I never let the sun set on an argument, even if I have to compromise a little bit on my own ego.

Before you go to bed make sure your partner is happy (as much as you can) and make sure that you are happy with them. It is also one of the best things you can do for your relationship, let alone your sleep.

3. Meditate, pray and calm down before going to bed
Every night before I go to bed I do about 30 minutes to an hour of meditation. This is amazing as it allows you to throw out all the days worries and forget about the worries of tomorrow. The future cannot be changed while you are asleep and the past is gone so there is no point losing sleep over it! Let it go.

Meditate or pray or do whatever you do. Simply sitting there and watching your breath is a great way to prepare yourself for a nice deep sleep. Check out this post if you want to learn to do a quick little stress relieving meditation.

4. Don’t eat dinner right before bed
A lot of people run home after work, cook up some dinner and then eat it and go to bed. This is a bad idea. The process of digestion takes a while and you do not want to be laying down right after you ate a big meal. Try and leave a few hours in between your bedtime and your dinner and see how you feel the next day.

5. Organize your room according to Feng Shui principles
I know a lot of you probably think that Feng Shui is a load of bull but just give me a second to convince you that it actually has some “western logic” behind it.

For those of you who don’t know Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese art of setting up your home in a way that balances the energies and vibes by putting furniture in certain “hot spots”.

The bedroom is particularly important and I have found that since I arranged my room according to Feng Shui principles I have had a much more “rested” sleep. In particular the placement of your bed is important. Feng Shui tells us that you should sleep where you can see the door but not be in he direct path of the door opening. This helps us sleep with a sense of security. I can see the practical reason for this. You can get some more bedroom Feng Shui tips here.

6. Go to the toilet
Even if you do not need to go to the toilet before bed you should still have a go and squeeze out whatever you can. The reason for this is that the kidneys will continue to work during the night and by the morning your bladder will be nice and full. If your bladder fills up early you might feel the need to go during the night and this cuts out valuable time from your sleep.

You might think that sleeping is about the total time spent asleep but this is incorrect. It is important to stay asleep without breaking it because it takes some hours to get into the “zone” where you are truly at rest. A toilet break interrupts this zone.

During the Night

7. Not too hot, not too cold
Another sleep related tip: your sleep is greatly affected by the how hot or cold you are during the night. It is important to get a good balance as this keep your energies calm and stops them from spiking.

Try and find a balance between clothes and bed covers. For example, I like to sleep without any clothes but with a heavy blanket. This keeps my temperature pretty consistent.

8. Keep the window open
One of the best things you can do for your health in general and your sleep in specific is to keep your window slightly open during the night. This has two benefits.

photo credit: volvidejapon

Firstly, the gap in the window will allow poisonous carbon dioxide to float away. The reason the human body breathes out is because carbon dioxide is poisonous. And during the night you take a heck of a lot of breaths and your room fills up with this gas. Let it out the window.

The second reason is that you need to allow new oxygen to float in. This might also help you regulate the temperature of the room.

9. Keep your sleep consistent
People think that you MUST have eight hours sleep to get enough.

Not true.

It is more important to go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time everyday. Not everyone needs eight hours. In fact, if I get eight hours sleep I usually feel tired and groggy for the entire day. Six to seven hours is about right for me.

Start by setting your bedtime at the same time each night. Forget what is on the television and just go to bed at say 11pm each night. After a while start setting your alarm for the same time each day; even on weekends. If you don’t start waking up fresher and happier each morning I will write you a personal apology.

10. Cut out noise, it’s actually killing you!
I recently read in New Scientist Magazine that your life is actually being shortened by noise during the night. Yep, that’s right… that screaming police car or roaring traffic is actually killing you! The magazine said that the noise has an effect on your heart and waking up many times during the night puts your body under a lot of stress.

Try and keep your room quiet by wearing some earplugs. You can get earplugs that only cancel out certain sounds so that you can still hear your alarm or a baby monitor on your bedside table.

The Morning

11. Drink a glass of water
A cool glass of water on an empty stomach actually has a lot of health benefits as well as serving to wake you up. The water will kick start your metabolism and as such you will wake up faster and feel more alert.

12. Exercise
When you are groggy in the morning and nice run in the fresh air can wake you up fast. However, the interesting thing is that when you exercise in the morning you will actually have more energy the NEXT day. The more you exercise the more energy you will have as you become fitter and healthier.

If you need some tips to get up and exercise early check out this post on early morning exercise hacks.

13. Don’t drink coffee… everyday
Science is now showing that our body becomes accustomed to the caffeine in our coffee and we have less of a reaction to it. This means that your daily cup of coffee is waking you up less and less every day that you drink it.

A better idea is to save the morning coffee for when you are really tired and need a little bit of help. Perhaps if you had to stay out late or get up extra early and you have disturbed your regular sleeping habit. This is the time to have a cup of coffee.

14. Breathe deeply
The first thing you should do in the morning is take some deep breaths into your stomach and concentrate on waking up. Imagine breathing in a bright white light that makes your body feel happy and light.

15. Have something to be excited about
If you get up and go to a job you hate to work with a boss that drives you crazy you are not going to really enjoy waking up. However, if you have something you enjoy to go to you will be more likely to wake up happy knowing you have a bit of joy coming your way.

If you can’t leave your terrible boss then you should make time in the morning to do some sport or activity that makes you happy. Start your day with something happy and fun as opposed to starting it with work.

16. Get up straight away
When I was in the Himalayas a buddhist master told me that one of the best things you can do to wake up early and feel alert and fresh is to get up straight away. As soon as your alarm goes off you should get up without snoozing it over and over again.

He said to me half jokingly: “You have to get up before your self cherishing does”.

17. Be grateful for not dying
The Buddha said that every time you go to bed you should consider that you won’t wake up. That way, when you wake up you will be especially grateful for the day you have ahead of you. Instead of seeing the day as a burden that you have to “get through” you will see it as an opportunity to do something meaningful and beneficial.

Why? Because you could die tonight.

When applied correctly this realization will bring you tremendous energy.

Conclusion on waking up freshly

Each of these tips works. I have tried it on myself and my friends. And the great thing is that the more of these tips you apply the fresher you will feel when you wake up. Try them yourself.

Do you have any other to add? I’d love to hear them!

Top photo: photoeyeliam

**Top 10 Daily Mind post.**

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“Old age is the most unexpected of all the things that can happen to a man.” – Trotsky

It is said that although death is certain, the time of death is most uncertain. Wise people have been trying to teach us this for thousands of years. Long life is considered by many to be the most precious gift that one can be given for it is rare and valuable; an unlikely chance to experience more, contribute to society and redeem our faults.

And although we will never be able to permanently cheat death, modern science is now showing us dozens of ways to add years to our life. In this post I want to show you some interesting things I have found about how to add at least ten years to your life, broken down into a list of do’s and don’ts.

Why live longer?

While researching this post I have come across and interesting perspective – why would I want to live a long life? Why would I want to grow old and lose my mobility, friends and perhaps sanity? Wouldn’t it be better to pass away younger whilst still relatively healthy and independent?

From one point of view I guess this attitude is right. I can understand why people would be afraid of living to an old age if old age meant only a degradation in the quality of their own life. But, from another perspective I think old age is quite a wonderful thing. Time is so limited and fleeting, any extra amount I am given to accomplish my goals would be most welcome.

A different focus
The key thing here, I think, is that your focus must be on charity, contribution, service, others. If you are just trying to live a long life because you are afraid of death or because you don’t want to leave your nice house then the whole idea seems silly. But if you want to live a long life in order to help others, then you are on a very different track.

The list of people who continued to help others right into their twilight years is long and includes wonderful names like:

• Shakyamuni Buddha (81 years)
• Mother Teresa (87 years)
• Gandhi (78 years)
• Benjamin Franklin (84 years)

Adding ten years to your life would be a wonderful achievement if it meant you could spend more time working to benefit others, helping your family and friends and contributing to your community and society. Unfortunately, however, there is no way we can add so many years to our life that death is averted. We must always try to remember that.

How to add 10 years to your life – the do’s and don’ts

photo credit: Ka-ho Pang

I have done my best to include as much “further reading” materials in the following tips so that you can go on and read more about the subject, the studies, etc. If I have missed any or you have any further information please leave a comment. It might really help someone.

DO – Meditate
Modern science is now beginning to study the effects of meditation on longevity with some very promising results. In India I had often heard stories of monks and nuns who lived to an extremely old age and I often wondered whether this had something to do with their dedicated meditation practice. Dr. Robert Keith Wallace is a pioneer in this field and published a study in the Journal of Neuroscience which showed that those who practiced meditation for just a five year period had a biological age somewhat 12 years less than their chronological age.

So why does meditation increase your lifespan? Lots of reasons. The main three, however, relate to its ability to deal with stress, longevity and immunity hormones. Dr. Vincent Giampapa has done studies that show how massively these hormones are affected by some simple meditation practice.

Many of these studies have shown that you just need to take a few minutes each day to sit down, relax and focus on your breathing. Calm your mind down and focus on the breath coming in and out of your nose and there is a good chance you will avoid certain illnesses. Scientific proof that the mind can affect the body in a big way.

DON’T – Stress
More than ever before we have concrete evidence that stress can kill you. Sure, it won’t kill you right away but it will lead to things like heart disease and perhaps even cancer. Robert Sapolsky has spent more than 30 years studying the effects of stress. In an interview with Stanford Report he mentions that stress is designed to keep us alive by helping us run away from predators or fight off enemies, and it does this extremely well by releasing certain hormones. But nowadays those same hormones are being released when we worry about money or our next bill. And overtime this has devastating effects on the body.

Stress is also dangerous because it can lead to other life-shortening practices like smoking or binge drinking. When you feel stressed at work you often come home to a junk food meal and some beer to make you feel better. And this makes you sick.

If you want to add 10 years to your life you need to learn how to deal with stress. It is important to realize that you will never be able to eliminate all the causes of stress in your life; the bills will keep coming. The goal is to develop some techniques to deal with those life events.

DO – Drink Green Tea
Green tea has been drunk in China and other regions of Asia for thousands of years. It has formed an integral part of their medical system and has long been known as a substance that can have very positive effects on the body. And now western medical science is backing up those claims with various studies that point to the health benefits of green tea. The study in the previous link surveyed 40,000 people over a ten year period and found that drinking green tea made you less likely to die of cardiovascular disease. And considering that heart disease is the leading cause of death in the western world, it might mean that green tea can significantly increase your life span.

photo credit: code_martial

When drinking green tea it is important to buy it from an ethical producer who is located in a non-polluted region. There is some evidence that suggests that toxins in the air and soil can be absorbed into the tea plant and passed along to your body. It is also very important to drink tea without any milk as a protein in the milk can damage some of the beneficial enzymes in the tea. Tea also has the dual effect of calming you down which can definitely reduce your stress levels.

DON’T – Stay up late
I have written about sleep a lot of times on this blog; how to wake up fresh, how to get to sleep, why staying up late is bad for you, etc. I have always felt the effects of a bad night’s sleep on my own body and mind but the more I look in to the matter, the more I realize that science is discovering the same thing. Late nights and erratic sleep are now understood to be contributing causes to conditions like obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

The interesting thing about sleep is that no one knows why we do it. But we know that we need it. Since the beginning of our species the body has forced us into shutting down each night for around six to 12 hours. And now that we have the internet, busy careers and, of course, the TV, we are all getting a lot less sleep. And this is worrying a lot of experts.

If you want to live an extra ten years it is important that you have good sleep habits. Try to make sure you go to bed and wake up at the same time each evening and morning, don’t drink things like red wine and coffee before bed which cause you to have poor sleep, and make sure you are getting enough hours. The ironic thing about all of this, however, is that you will probably spend an extra ten years asleep!

DO – Exercise every day
This is nothing new. Exercise has long been known to have benefits like weight loss, increased cardiovascular health and an increased level of emotional well being. But what is just coming out now is how much exercise you need to achieve these benefits. And it is bad news for sweat haters. You need exercise every day. One recent study went so far as to say that you will not lose weight in the long term unless you exercise an hour every single day. That is a lot.

photo credit: David Clow – Maryland

The good news is that there are so many different types of exercise you will never feel bored. Exercise doesn’t have to be running or lifting weights. It could be yoga, pilates, dance classes, tai chi or kick boxing. It is important to choose a variety of different disciplines so that you do not get sick of one thing and give up on exercise altogether. One way you can do this is find a buddy that will share your passion and dedication. Go to classes together, wake each other up at 6:30am to go for a run, have fun together. This is an easy way to add years to your life.

DON’T – Eat Meat
This is likely to be a very controversial heading as the western world is so obsessed with eating meat. We have commercials on television telling us to eat more red meat for its iron and vitamins and we have Government sponsored cookbooks telling us that lots of meat is healthy. But, as happened in Australia a few years ago, it turned out that the cookbooks were paid for by the meat industry. Often times the advice telling us to eat meat has an ulterior motive.

There are now lots of studies that show that vegetarianism is linked with a longer life. In fact, this one tells us that if you eat a vegetarian diet for over 20 years you are likely to add four whole years to your life. It is interesting to note, however, that the scientists don’t really know why a low meat diet increases our lifespan. Is it because fruit and vegetables are so healthy, because meat is unhealthy or because being a vegetarian might also indicate other lifestyle choices? They just don’t know.

Eating less meat is a way to live longer but it is also a good idea for other reason. Two of the big ones include ethics and environmental protection. The meat industry is extremely cruel to animals at every stage of their life. The living conditions are often torturous and the culling and transport stages (especially if live export) are unacceptable. In a day an age where we have scientific and documentary evidence that animals feel pain, emotions and desire happiness, it is entirely baffling that we continue to treat them with such cruelty when using them for food.

I have been trying for a long time to be vegetarian and keep failing miserably so I definitely don’t deserve this soap box. But I have got my meat eating down to around once or twice a week with a view to, one day, have totally kicked the habit. If you love a good steak or a cheeseburger perhaps try limiting it to weekends and see how you go?

Conclusion

These few simple do’s and don’ts are enough to add ten years on to your life if you do them consistently and with dedication. But it doesn’t need to stop there – you can stop smoking and, just by that fact, you will increase your life expectancy. Remember, living a long time is something we should aim for but not expect. It is important to use what little time we have on this planet to help others and bring about positive changes in lives of those around you. Otherwise you might spend 90 years not doing much at all.

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“A clear understanding of negative emotions dismisses them.” – Vernon Howard

Stress, depression, panic attacks and anxiety. The modern world is overflowing with emotional problems of all different kinds. And chances are you or someone you know has suffered from some form of emotionally unhealthy state. So how can we avoid these problems? Are there things we can do to prevent them coming about?

In this post I am going to present the lifetime guide to staying emotionally healthy. I hope it helps someone out there.

What is emotional health?

Before I present any ideas about emotional health I need to define it. Without a solid idea we really won’t know what were talking about and we will get lost.

Emotional health is not a single state of mind like “pleasure” or “joy” but an ongoing process. Emotional health is a conversation, a journey and above all it is work. It will change and you will go up and down. Even the most emotionally healthy person will have bad days. But those bad days are all part of the process, and they’re aware of it.

Emotional health is all about gathering new tools and methods to constantly better your mind. It is flux.

To be emotionally healthy you need to spend a lot of time being open and learning. As soon as you close your mind to new ideas or information you cut yourself off from the possibility of being healthy. This post could perhaps serve as a starting point. It is by no means the end point. Read, research, study and practice. And never give up, because emotional health is an ongoing process.

Why is emotional health so important?

photo credit: RSNY

I have always found it extremely interesting that today’s society will place a massive emphasis on physical well being but almost nothing is done about the mental state. Unless you are suffering from serious depression or some other mental illness, you don’t hear anything about “working on your mind” or “developing emotional health”. And this is quite troubling.

Imagine how happy we could be if we spent as much time working with our emotions as we did running on the treadmill or cooking a healthy dinner. Imagine how different the world would be if there was less anger and more compassion. I think it would be a very different place.

What I am going to show you in this post, however, is that you don’t need to necessarily sit on a cushion or take separate time out to become emotionally healthy. In fact, going to the gym and cooking a nice meal is a big part of emotional health. Stick around and see if you learn something new and, as always, leave a comment if I have forgotten anything.

The lifetime guide to staying emotionally healthy

photo credit: fairlybuoyant

Now for the main bulk of the post. Here I am going to present some ideas that you can use work with your emotions in order to become more emotionally healthy. Remember, this is a long term project that you will have to stick at for the rest of your life. You will, however, start to see results right away.

1. Understand you are in control of your emotions
The very first step you need to take on this journey is to realize that you are in control of your emotions. This fact is lost on the modern world; many of us become slaves to anger and depression and stress. But when you turn that around and start to understand that you are the boss of what goes on in your head, you are suddenly left with a very workable situation. Without this understanding, however, no progress can be made.

2. Become familiar with your mind through meditation
Once you have conviction that you are in control of your emotions, you need to become familiar with them through meditation. Now, meditation does not mean sitting on a cushion saying “OOMMM” over and over. Sure it can be that, but it is not only that. The way to meditate is to constantly bring your attention to your thoughts and just let your mind relax in that.

The Tibetan word for meditation is “gom” which means “to familiarize”. This gives us a great insight into what meditation is supposed to be. It is not about relaxing so much as it is about familiarizing ourselves with positive states of mind. Compassion, love, patience, silence. And the very interesting thing about meditation is that these states of mind arise naturally when you just start to look at your mind.

How does this work? Simple. According to Buddhism the nature of every being is compassionate. We are not inherently evil and we are not naturally sinners. Naturally we are compassionate but we have lost connection with that innate part of our being. But looking at the mind re-connects us with that state because we all of a sudden get in control of our minds. And when we get in control of our minds the first thing we feel is sadness for all those people out there who are still struggling. It is an intensely powerful moment in your life.

If you want to learn more about meditation you can check back on some of my other articles:

• Loneliness vs aloneness: lessons from a solitary mountain retreat
• A look into the psychology of meditation

One of the best things you can do for yourself if you want to become happy and proficient in controlling your mind is learn from someone who has already done it. There are so many wonderful meditation teachers in our world, I encourage you to connect with one. And that leads us to our next point.

3. Connect with good people and avoid bad company
A few weeks ago I wrote an article about avoiding bad company which ruffled up some feathers. A got a few emails that day saying that I was a disloyal friend and that you should stick by your mates even if they are bad for you. Okay, fine. I agree. You should stick by your bad mates if you are able to do so without them being a negative influence on you. But when you see yourself in a downward spiral it is time to leave them alone.

Surrounding yourself with good company is one of the most important life lessons a person can learn. Once a dear friend of mine told me that you will become the average of your five closest friends so make sure you choose wisely. I did. I chose people who were happy, successful and who worked for the betterment of others. I very rarely spend time with people who are selfish, hateful and bigoted. The Buddha once said:

“Put a rose in a sack of fish and soon the rose starts to stink too.”

Now there is no problem visiting people with the motivation of helping them or cheering them up. That is a wonderful thing to do. But if you are best friends with a drug addict racist who starts to rub off on you then you are in for problems. If you want to be emotionally healthy you need to surround yourself with people who are living a life you wish to emulate. Let them rub off on you.

4. Practice ethical behavior to avoid depression, anxiety and fear
Once you have become familiar with your mind and have made a commitment to stay emotionally healthy it is important to live an ethical life. Without a solid basis of ethical behavior there is no chance for long term happiness. So why are ethics so important? Let’s take a look.

photo credit: Daniel Greene

The first thing you will notice about an unethical or mean person is that they have very few true friends. They may have followers or people around them who latch on out of fear, but they have no trusted confidants. And that is a very lonely place to be. In fact, it is a situation that will eventually drive you crazy.

It is also important to realize that negative acts come back to you. If you spend your life stealing or cheating on your girlfriends the chances are your reputation will come back to haunt you. And I am not just talking about other people being mad at you. Soon you will begin to feel guilty. Imagine living your whole life hurting others and to be in the last stages of your life and feel intense regret. It would be an emotion so crippling that you would struggle to cope. Life your life without regrets.

5. Read the masters and scholars of the past
Will Smith is a Hollywood star that many people admire for his staunch opposition to gangster rap that denigrates women and encourages violence and his lifetime pursuit of being a “nice guy”. A few years ago I saw a video of Will Smith speaking to thousands of kids at a Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards ceremony. What he said really knocked my socks off.

The human race has an amazing history full of struggles and hardships. But out of those hardships have come some amazing thinkers. There have been men and women who, instead of picking up a sword or gun, have sat thinking. Their messages have been passed down the generations long after the wars were over. And now we are left with a gold mine of knowledge and wisdom. These people left a legacy that we should feel honored to be a part of and study. Like Will said, there are no new problems. If you want to be emotionally healthy you need to take a look at what the great adepts of the past have thought and said about being emotionally healthy.

Let me give you a little introduction to a few great minds that have affected my life. A starting point for you.

• Buddha
• Milarepa
• Socrates
• Plato
• Aristotle
• Descartes
• Kant
• Hume

The Buddha was a revolutionary, possibly the first of his kind. He sat under a tree and developed theories that have served as the basis for most philosophical thinking. Start with the Buddha’s teachings and work your way forward through history. Study the European philosophers and the masters of meditation from India, China and Japan. Do this and you will be well on your way to emotional health.

6. Avoid man made food, eat naturally
For most of my youth I failed to recognize the link between food and depression. I, like most teenagers, ate a lot of fast food and drank a lot of sugary sodas. And I felt crap, all the time. If you want long term emotional health you need to be very careful about what you put in your body.

To prove this point to yourself I want you to go out and buy the most unhealthy lunch you can. McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC or some other deep fried animal should do the trick. Now watch your mind for the next two hours. Are you more irritable? Are you more depressed and tired? Are you quicker to anger? I bet you are. Now for dinner I want you to have a meal that contains nothing man made. That means no pasta, baked goods or anything produced in a factory. Make something full of colorful vegetables and natural products. Avoid meat if you can. Now watch your mind for the next two hours. How much more energetic, happy and alive do you feel?

The thing about food is that it can change your life. If you eat poorly you are more likely to get cancer, heart disease and diabetes. If you eat well you can live longer, avoid illness and look super sexy. So why do we always opt for the bad choice? Laziness? I’m not sure. Eating well is a big part of being emotionally healthy.

7. Enjoy the middle
Quite often the reason we get unhealthy emotionally is because we do things in excess. Instead of partying once a week we do it four times a week. Instead of eating junk food on the weekends we eat it on the weekdays. Instead of having one coffee per day we have seven. A key to being emotionally healthy is doing things in moderation. Quite often it isn’t that something is inherently bad for us, it is just that we do it too often.

8. Develop strength in your own personal set of values
Emotional health is not just avoid depression and learning to cope with stress. That is just a tiny fraction of what we are talking about. Emotional health is also become a less angry person, considering other human beings in a different way and improving yourself on a variety of levels. One of the ways you can improve your emotional health is to develop a set of values and stick to them.

photo credit: margolove

When I was in high school I remember hearing that “the measure of a man is by how quickly he gets angry“. I found this statement to be extremely inspiring and decided then and there that I was going to avoid anger at all costs. The more I looked into the statement the more I realized how much other people respected calm, strong and un-angry people. This was something I was going to follow through.

Over time life has thrown me many more of these lessons. Compassion, love, patience. All of these ideas I have tried to adopt into my own persona and stick to them no matter what. And it has been an amazing source of strength. Whenever I feel my emotional state slipping I remind myself of who I want to be and whip myself back on track.

Conclusion

Emotional health is all about working with your mind and your body to achieve some sort of personal mastery. It is a long process and along the way you will inevitably stagger, fault and make mistakes. But these mistakes all serve to make you stronger. If you want to stay emotionally healthy for your entire life you need to explore your mind, read philosophy, take care of your body and avoid extremes. If you can do even a few of these you will be far better equipped than the majority of the population.

So how emotionally healthy are you? Do you do most of these things already or do you have work to do? Most important, what have I missed?

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Everyone is addicted to something. For me it is coffee. I love it. Others have an addiction to drugs, sex or video games. And the sad thing about addictions is that they overtake your entire life; everything else comes second. In this post I am going to give you some practical and meaningful ways to overcome your addictions. It is my sincere hope that you beat them soon.

How do you know if you’re addicted?

The first step that we need to look at is whether or not you are actually addicted. Some people say they are addicted to coffee when, in actual fact, they just really like a cup in the morning. I would say that this is a bad habit as opposed to an addiction.

Addictions are a different kettle of fish. They are more consuming and debilitating. One sign that you are addicted to something is that feel like you cannot live without it. You need it. You have to have it. And when you don’t get it you feel sick. That is and addiction.

There are also many signs that point to the fact that you are becoming addicted. For example, let’s take a Facebook addiction. One sign that you are on the path to addiction is when you are late for meetings or appointments because you are using the website. If your poison is interfering with the normal function of your life then chances are you are on that slippery slope.

How to overcome your addictions

The suggestions that I am about to give come from a lifetime of dealing with a very addictive personality. Although I have never been addicted to anything serious like drugs or alcohol I do sometimes feel the “pull” of some other addictive behaviors. I also grew up with an alcoholic father which ignited in me a wish to learn more about addictions.

I should point out, however, that I am not a doctor, psychologist or counselor. Nothing that I say should replace the advice of a professional.

1. See the damage your addiction is causing
The first thing that you need to do if you have an addiction is realize the damage that it is doing to your life. Once you can truly see and accept this negativity you will be more likely to make a change.

photo credit: DNQA

Let’s take the example of an alcoholic. This is a very destructive addiction because it really affects every area of your life. Your work starts to become unproductive because you are either intoxicated or in desperate need of a drink. Your family life starts to crumble because you lie to your spouse about where you are and how much you’ve been drinking. And your health is impacted – weight gain and liver problems.

If you feel you are addicted to something and you want to fix the problem you really need to take an honest look at the damage your addiction is causing. You really need to be honest with yourself. Don’t blame anything or anyone else – be honest. When you can do this you are ready to change.

2. Admit it to someone else
The next step you need to take is admitting to someone else that you have an addiction. A lot of self-help strategies tell you to admit it to yourself but I think this is not enough. You need to admit it to someone else.

Here’s why. You KNOW you are addicted. Your mind has self-awareness and you know exactly what you think and feel. You might make excuses for it or dodge the issue but deep down you know you are addicted. So admitting it to yourself only takes you so far. However, if you go out and admit it to someone else you are acknowledging that the addiction is a problem. This is one step further from merely admitting it is there – you are admitting it is dangerous.

Make a date with your spouse, mother, father, brother, sister or friend. Or book some time to see a counselor. Tell them that you have a problem and you need help. Tell them that you intend to get better and politely ask them to check in on you from time to time. This is important.

3. Get specific information
The next thing you need to do is get information specific to your addiction. We all know the saying “knowledge is power” and it is as true as ever when it comes to overcoming addiction. You need to know exactly how your problem works, why it came about and how to go about fixing it.

When you are looking for information you need to do a little better than blogs and internet resources. You need text books written by professionals and you need advice from experts who are trained to deal with your specific problem. The internet is a wonderful resource for many things but when it comes to serious addictions you need to make sure you are only working with the best material. Be careful.

4. Take a vow
The next thing you need to do is make a vow. This is probably the most important step in the whole process. Without this vow you will struggle to stick it out when times get tough.

photo credit: hylah

When I was young I was introduced to the idea of Buddhist vows. I was fascinated with the way they shaped a person’s life and kept you from straying down negative paths. I was mesmerized by the monks and how pure they were because of their vows. Their vows were the most important things in their life. In fact, many monks recite a prayer that says, “I will protect my vows like I protect my own eyes“. This is how you need to consider your vow.

Your vow is your word. It is your promise to yourself and to other people. It is your guiding light – the pathway that will take you from sickness to health. Take a vow and stick to it no matter what. When you feel tired and sick and helpless and are tempted to go back to your poison remember your vow – rely on it.

5. Make a plan
Beating an addiction is a battle. And like any battle, you need a plan to be successful. Imagine running into Iraq with a team of soldiers and no idea what your plan was. It would be suicide. The same is true of your addiction – without a plan you will fail.

Your plan should be made in conjunction with the information that you got earlier. It should be clearly laid out and put somewhere where you will see it everyday. Try to include as much detail as possible – how long you are going to take to quit, how much support you need, your daily activities, etc.

It is very important to pick a date by which you will have quit your addiction. Without that date your journey is just a dream. With that date it can become reality. Pick a date (a reasonable one) and stick to it.

6. Find inspiration
This step is one of the most important of them all. Inspiration. You are going to need someone or something to rely on when the going gets tough. Make sure you know exactly what yours is so you don’t have to scramble to find it when you are feeling down.

If you have a religion it can be very useful in these times. You can look at the great examples of the Saints of your lineage and see the hardships that they went through. I feel quite an affinity for the Buddhist masters and as such I draw a lot of inspiration from the Dalai Lama and the great yogi Milarepa. These are real human beings who have faced some extremely tough circumstances and come out as better people. That is inspiring.

Do some research and find out who or what inspires you. As I said, make sure you know before you start to panic who you are going to go to. If you don’t you will just end up back on the booze or the drugs.

7. Get rid of negative influences
Once when I was traveling in India a great Buddhist master was giving a series of teachings. On the last day of these teachings he said something that has become a steadfast rule in my life, “If you put a rose in a bag of fish soon the rose will start to stink too. Be careful of the company you keep”.

Quite often our “friends” are the worst thing for us. When we hang around them we are brought under their influence and end up doing all sorts of things that we wouldn’t have done otherwise. If you have an addiction or feel like you are going that way it would be a good idea to see whether any friends or events that you participate in are negatively influencing you. If you can identify any get rid of them straight away.

8. Develop strength and embrace failure
The final thing that I want to talk about in this particular article is the idea of developing strength and facing failure. When you are trying to beat such a deeply ingrained habit you need to have a lot of strength. And you need to be ready to fail.

photo credit: ePi.Longo

If you fail on your journey it is not a signal to give up. Rather, you should rejoice at the amount of time that you were able to accomplish and re-start with a renewed energy and sense of ambition. Tell yourself that this time you are going to go all the way. Don’t give up.

Conclusion

Every single human being has the potential for happiness. If you are addicted to something you are really holding yourself back from achieving your true potential. If you have happened upon this article in search of some answers I truly hope you find some inspiration. I wish you all the best on your journey and sincerely hope you can overcome your vice, whatever it may be.

Does anyone out there have any words of wisdom to share? Has anyone overcome an addiction or helped someone who has?

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Over the past year and a half I have developed the bad habit of staying up late. Really late. I rarely get to bed before 2am as I am up working on my business. And since I developed this bad habit I’ve noticed some of my other good habits fading away like dew in the sunshine. I don’t meditate as much, I am less patient and my health is not as strong.

In this post I want to give you a few reasons as to why staying up late is a bad idea and why we should all endeavor to go to bed a bit earlier.

What constitutes “staying up late”

So how do you know if you are staying up late? Is 10pm late? Is 1am late? Actually, it depends. You know you are staying up late by one single signal. You are tired. If you are up late enough to be tired you know that you are going past your body’s bedtime. And this bedtime is different for everybody. Some people need to be in bed by 8pm. Others can stay up all night studying and not feel tired at all.

Why we should go to bed earlier

photo credit: marcandrelariviere

If you find that you often stay up late it might be worth while having a read over these points. I truly believe that people these days stay up far too late and that going to bed earlier is a key to many successes in your life.

If you know of any other reasons or perhaps you don’t agree with what I have written please leave a comment and discuss it. I am very interested to learn more about the issue of sleep.

1. Humans aren’t used to staying up late
Something that I have come to realize in the past few days is that humans are not used to staying up late. In fact, up until about 100 years ago most human beings would go to bed at a little after sundown. This is an interesting point as it indicates that staying up late is a very unnatural behavior.

Before electricity and light bulbs most people went to bed as soon as the days chores were finished and dinner was eaten. Sure, they had candles and fires but for the most part people did not stay up reading. They certainly weren’t up writing blog posts or watching Letterman! And going to bed early often means waking up early – until about 100 years ago everyone got up at dawn.

So perhaps staying up late is not healthy because we aren’t used to it yet. Perhaps humans are supposed to go to bed early and get up early – just like every other creature on Earth. And this leads me to my next point…

2. Staying up late is not nature’s way
I recently saw a video where the great Buddhist master Tai Situ Rinpoche said that staying up late and getting up late was not in tune with nature. I think he is 100% correct.

photo credit: lab brat

Think about the world. Think about nature. Everything rises when the sun rises. The flowers start to open, the birds start chirping and so on. With the exception of nocturnal animals everything on Earth wakes up as the sun does. And in a similar vein everything goes to bed as the sun does. Flowers close, birds nest, etc. But humans stay up watching television or reading blogs. Does that sound right?

If something or someone goes against nature it usually has bad consequences. For example, if you spend your life eating unnatural foods it usually means you end up getting fat, diabetes or even cancer. So why is bedtime any different? Is it really a good idea to disturb this natural rhythm?

3. The morning is the best time for meditation
Throughout the ages, since the time of the Buddha, meditation masters have been telling us that the morning is the best time of the day for spiritual progress. For many of you reading this article your spiritual progress is the most important aspect of your life. So why are we sleeping in?

In the morning the mind is clearer, sharper and more at ease. It is easier to rest in the natural state of your mind and you have a lot less disturbing emotions such as desire, anger and attachment (apart form attachment to sleep!). Furthermore, Chinese medicine shows us that the internal energies (chi) of the body are ideal for meditation during the early hours of the day. Perhaps this has something to do with the natural rhythm that we talked about above?

If you want to become a great meditator or at least start to take your meditation practice more seriously I strongly urge you to start going to bed early and waking up early. You will find that progress comes a lot faster.

4. The morning is the best time for exercise
Last night as I was sitting on the computer eating a packet of crisps and drinking a chocolate milk the news lady told me that Australia is now the fattest nation in the world. I couldn’t believe it! My home country was now fatter (per capita) than the USA. And there I was up late eating junk food and depriving my body of sleep.

If you are trying to lose weight the best time of the day for exercise is first thing in the morning. Why? It is simple. If you exercise before breakfast your body will start to burn your fat stores for energy as there is no available energy from your food. This means you lose weight a lot faster than if you were exercises after a meal.

But weight loss is not the only reason. Exercising before work is also a great way to tackle depression and leaves you feeling fit and alive the rest of the day. You will have a lot more energy and work won’t seem so draining. This I can guarantee.

5. Being tired usually means being grumpy
Here at The Daily Mind we are very interested in personal growth. And as we all know one of the most important ways to grow as a person is to start behaving in a more loving, compassionate and patient manner. But tiredness sometimes makes this aspiration difficult.

photo credit: RobertFrancis

Think about the last time you were sleep deprived. You might have been up all night working on an assignment and then had to get up at the crack of dawn to get to work. Think about how mean and irritable you were that day. You got angry at everyone around you and you felt extremely agitated. Then you went and downed five coffees to wake you up and instead made yourself more depressed, anxious and uptight. That is what tiredness can do to you.

If you are trying to work with your mind and become a more loving person you need to give yourself all the help you can. Going to bed early is one way to do this. A fully rested and fresh you is a lot more loving than a tired and grumpy you.

6. Late nights aren’t that productive
Something that occurred to me very recently was the fact that I am not very productive during the later hours of the night. My mind is usually foggier and I am less likely to get things done. So perhaps staying up late to do more work is not the best idea?

If you are staying up late to get work done perhaps you need to rethink you strategy. Start to become aware of your late night work hours and find out if they are really as productive as you think. For example, if you have a report or an article to write see how many words you get done in an hour and then compare it to the writing you do during the day. I bet it is less productive.

Perhaps a better strategy would be to get a good night’s sleep and then wake up early and work when your mind is fresher and more alert? I am considering trying this at the moment. What do you think? Has this worked for anyone?

Conclusion

There is a strong case to be made for early nights and early mornings. It seems that the only reason we don’t do it already is because we are up watching bad television or because the bed is too hard to part from at 6am. However, once the habit of staying up late and sleeping in is conquered I honestly think that we will accomplish more, become better people and feel a lot happier. What do you think?

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Every 34 seconds someone in the United States dies from heart disease. That is 2,500 people a day! In my opinion there is not enough attention placed on the dangers of heart disease. Most of us are concerned about breast, prostate and skin cancer but these diseases kill far less people than heart disease. So why aren’t we more worried? Heart disease kills more people than any other condition. That is a fact.

This post is going to show you 13 ways that you can live, eat and work for a healthy heart. Each one of these tips is a powerful way to reduce your risk of a heart attack and help you improve the strength of your ticker. I hope that some of you take these tips to heart.

13 ways to live, eat and work for a healthier heart

1. Get out and move your body
Exercise is without a doubt the best thing you can do for your heart. This is a scientifically proven fact that no one can debate. It is vital that you get at least 20 minutes of exercise everyday if you want to have a healthy and fit heart.

You see, the heart is a muscle. And like any other muscle it needs to be exercised. If you don’t work out your biceps they soon go soggy and old and you run a greater risk of damaging or tearing them. The same is true of the heart. If you don’t get it pumping on a regular basis you are more likely to suffer a heart attack or some other form of heart disease.

Start by walking. Everyone can do this. You can park your car 20 minutes away from the office and walk the distance each day. That way it becomes part of your routine and is more difficult to avoid. Or, if you want to get really fit and healthy you can start jogging, doing martial arts, swimming or going to the gym. All of these things are a fantastic way to help your heart.

2. Start tackling your stress
We all get stressed. It is unavoidable. But if you do not start dealing with your stress it could wind up causing you some pretty serious problems. Research has shown that people who are highly stressed run a greater risk of heart attacks and coronary artery disease.

Scientists aren’t actually sure why stress causes heart problems. They know there is a link but they aren’t sure what it is. Some people say that stress itself is a direct cause for heart attacks while others say that stress makes other factors like cholesterol or blood pressure worse. Whatever the hard science says, it is clear that there is a link between stress and increase heart disease.

I have written many articles on stress as it is something I am constantly trying to deal with myself. The things that have helped me the most include meditation, exercise and overcoming procrastination. But these methods might not work for you. It is important that you learn how to deal with stress in your own way. It could be the best thing you ever do for your health.

3. Stop smoking right now

photo credit: bradleygee

I am going to speak honestly here. I hope I offend some people. Smoking is a filthy habit. I feel really sorry for smokers as they are willingly and knowingly inhaling poison – poison they know is killing them. This is not the 1920’s. We know that smoking causes cancer and heart disease. So if you are a smoker and you are reading this post then stop right now because all the tips in the world are going to be 100% ineffective if you keep smoking cigarettes.

Cigarettes contain over 4,800 dangerous chemicals. Can you imagine going into your chemical cabinet in the basement and sniffing 4,800 of them? You just wouldn’t do it. So why keep smoking cigarettes? Now, I am sorry for sounding so judgmental and harsh but it is because I care. I don’t want you to die an agonizing and painfully slow death of lung cancer. I don’t want you to die of a heart attack before you get to say goodbye to your children. I want you to live a long and happy life. So I am saying it like it is.

There is an upside. The upside is this: If you are a smoker you have an advantage over everyone else. You have the power to make one change that will massively improve your heart’s health. All you have to do is quit smoking. If you quit smoking today you will add years on to your life. Literally… years. No other “healthy heart tip” is as powerful as this one.

4. Make your diet mostly fruits and vegetables
Many years ago when I was in high school I read a book that talked about the advantages of eating a diet mostly based around fruits and vegetables. In that book the author spoke about all the people and cultures throughout history who did this and all the benefits that they enjoyed. And now science is backing up this information by telling us that fruits and vegetables help keep a healthy heart.

In today’s modern world we eat a lot of processed foods. Chips, candy, soda, take out, etc. All of these foods are full of sugar, salt and a thousand types of preservatives all of which are bad for your ticker. It is time to switch to a natural diet made of mostly fruits and vegetables. This will help you avoid heart disease and other illnesses like cancer and diabetes.

It is not as hard as it sounds. Think about all the beautiful things you can make from fruits and vegetables – potato curries, fruits salads, Caesar salads, roast vegetables, Asian stir fry and so much more. And the best thing is that you always feel amazing after eating them. No feelings of heaviness of bloating.

5. Lose weight – especially fat on your stomach
There is a massive campaign going on in Australia at the moment which is trying to educate people on how dangerous it is to be fat. In particular, the commercials are telling us that new science has shown that belly fat in particular can dramatically increase your chances of having a heart attack. Take a look:

The problem – it is impossible to lose weight off your belly alone. It is called ‘spot reduction‘ and it is a weight loss myth as old as religion. If you want to lose fat off your belly you need to get out there and burn fat off your whole body. Lifting weights and high intensity cardio are two of the best ways to do this.

6. Sleep in a completely silent room
When you go to bed can you hear cars racing down your street, dogs barking or possums scratching? Is your bedroom just as noisy as anywhere else in your house? Well science says this is not good. Not good at all.

A recent edition of New Scientist magazine published results from a recent study that showed that a noisy bedroom can actually lead to heart disease. They believe that all the noises that you hear while you are sleeping cause you to wake up a little bit and this causes your body a lot of stress.

The motto? Make sure your room is dead quiet. If you live in a noisy area or in the city it is a good idea to get some earplugs or figure out some other way to minimize the noise. It is an small thing to do but it will have a big impact on your heart’s health.

7. Brush your teeth
Hang on a second! Isn’t this article about a healthy heart? Yes it is. And brushing your teeth is one of the most important and vital aspects of keeping a healthy heart. What a world we live in!

Scientists now know that poor dental hygiene is one of the best ways to increase your chances of getting heart disease. And the logic is simple; if you don’t brush your teeth you allow bacteria and other germs to build up in your mouth. These germs can then enter into your blood stream through a cut gum and cause your heart some problems.

Dentists recommend brushing your teeth in the morning and the evening. You may also benefit from rinsing with some alcohol mouth wash. What ever you do the message is clear – don’t go to bed without brushing your teeth if you want to live to a ripe old age.

8. Cut out salt
We all know that salt is bad. And there is scientific proof. Scientists at Harvard University have now shown us that increased sodium equals increased risk of heart disease. If you want to live a long life you need to drastically reduce the amount of salt that you consume.

The problem is that in the USA and other western countries salt is hidden in almost everything we eat. We can easily avoid adding extra salt at the table but it is not so easy to avoid salt in other foods that we consume because we have no idea that it is there in the first place!

The main culprits are snacks like biscuits, chips and ready made meals but you will also find salt in most processed, man-made foods. Next time you are out for a Chinese meal pay attention to just how salty the food is. You might be surprised!

9. Start reading labels
In most countries it is now against the law to sell a food product without disclosing the nutritional information on the back. This is wonderful news for people who are a little bit heart health conscious because it means you can easily ascertain what is in your food and whether it is bad for your heart.

If you are at risk of a heart attack (family history, overweight, etc.) you need to get into the habit of reading food labels whenever you go shopping. Look for the amount of salt (sodium) in the food and make sure it is low in saturated fat and sugar.

The sad thing is that it is really difficult nowadays to find foods that are good for the heart. Even foods with the Heart Foundation tick are not low in salt and fat. They are just better alternatives. One needs to be quite vigilant to find a food that is good for your heart.

10. Start using olive oil instead of other dressings

photo credit: KimmoPa

Olive oil is said to be extremely good for helping to reduce cancer and heart disease. And Extra Virgin Olive oil is said to be even better. Most experts recommend using extra virgin olive oil for your cooking and all your dressings.

So why is olive oil so good? A recent study in Greece showed that relying on olive oil alone to lower your risk of coronary heart disease had great benefits. They tested over 1000 people – some of them with family histories, some of them were healthy, some not healthy. They made some people start exercising, stop smoking, etc. and it was found that increasing the amount of olive oil was the single best thing for improving heart health. It is also known as a super food for combating bad cholesterol and increasing good cholesterol.

It is now understood that cooking olive oil damages some of its health properties so it is a good idea to add it to pasta, sauce and dressings after the cooking has been done. I could go on about the benefits of olive oil forever but I think you get the idea. If you want to learn more about the health benefits of olive oil check out this page.

11. Know the difference between good and bad cholesterol
Okay so here is a quick science lesson for you. Not all cholesterol is bad. There are two types of cholesterol – one is good for you, one is bad for you.

Good cholesterol is called HDL which stands for high density lipoprotein. Bad cholesterol is called LDL and stands for low density lipoprotein. HDL, good. LDL, bad. The reason LDL is bad is because it builds up on the arterial wall and eventually causes them to block up. HDL, on the other hand, cleans up the LDL and helps transport it to the liver where it is processed and dealt with. So the more HDL you have the less likely you are to suffer a heart attack or heart disease.

There is a problem though. Science has not found any evidence that food increases HDL over the long term. It is said that fatty fish and some oils have heart benefits but they do not increase HDL naturally. Therefore we cannot rely too much on adding HDL foods and instead have to focus on lower LDL foods.

12. Make new habits
It occurred to me recently that a lot of the bad things that we do as humans is because of habits. We build up all these habits that are harmful to our health and harmful to those around us. Many of the causes of heart disease could be averted by changing our habits and replacing them with new, healthier habits.

Take diet for example. We are accustomed to grabbing a Coke and some chips if we want a snack. But if we chose some unsalted walnuts or some wholegrain bread dipped in olive oil instead we might be a lot healthier. Exercise is also another habit that you create. You need to get in to the habit of doing something every single day without fail. That way you create a healthy habit and it becomes easier to perform.

Habits are hard to break but easy to create. Instead of going cold turkey try and replace some old and unhealthy habits with something new and heart-friendly. Instead of watching TV after work go for a walk. Instead of grabbing a Coke grab some sparkling water. After a while it will become second nature.

13. Meditate regularly
As you know I am a big fan of meditation. I have been pretending to be a meditator for many years now and have had a few glimpses of how helpful it can be in almost every area of my life. But now science is backing me up! It turns out the regular meditation is good for the heart.

There is evidence that points to the fact that regular sessions of meditation reduce blood pressure and can actually decrease the amount of fatty acid in the system. This means you are less likely to die of a heart attack or develop heart disease, even if you have a family history.

So how do you meditate? I have written some in depth articles here as there are many different styles and forms. However, all you need to do to reap the health benefits is sit down, relax and start concentrating on your breath. 20 minutes of this everyday will go a long way to increasing your lifespan and your overall well being.

Conclusion

The heart is a muscle we rely on all day, everyday, but it is one that we seldom remember to take care of. We can’t flex it in a mirror or show it off under a tight T-shirt and as such it is never foremost in our mind. But here is the thing: it is not hard to take care of the heart! All it takes is a bit of effort and some good knowledge and you can increase your lifespan and reduce the risk of heart attack.

If anyone else has some tips or a good story about heart health I would love to hear them! Please leave a comment and let us know.

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Take a look at a Pie Chart of the results:

The biggest section is the 2-3 cups per day which I think is pretty normal and to be expected. The next biggest slice of pie, however, is the NONE section meaning that 28.4% of readers drink no coffees at all. This really took me by surprise.

I wonder why all these people don’t drink coffee. Is it a health choice? I also wonder if readers of The Daily Mind are less likely to drink coffee because they seem to be interested in training their mind and coffee is seen as an obstacle to that? Who knows…

The next poll will be up later this week so make sure you come back and vote!

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“Is the cup half full or half empty?”

For a long time I have been addicted to coffee. Three to four cups a day addicted. After struggling with many different methods of giving up and quitting the world’s most popular drug I realized that my basic training in meditation could be the solution. In this post I want to talk about how I am going quit coffee using some simple meditation techniques. If you feel like you are drinking too much coffee then read through this post and apply the techniques to your own life. The meditations are basic and anyone can do them.

Why Quit Coffee?

Coffee is full of caffeine and caffeine is a drug. Like any drug it is addictive and this addiction is a negative thing for the body and the mind. Why? Because it makes you want more. You get a nice wake up jolt from the first cup but after a few weeks one cup is not enough and you need two. Then the same thing happens and after a year of drinking coffee you are on 4+ cups per day. I think it is called escalation.

Many studies have been done on the effects of coffee. Some studies say that coffee is a good thing and that it has many health benefits. For example, one study showed that drinking coffee lowers your risk of getting bowel cancer. Other studies, however, have painted coffee in a negative light. It is difficult to trust these studies because there are so many and they seem to come up with a different result every time.

So what do you do? What is the answer?

As far as I am concerned the best thing to do with coffee is weigh up the pros and the cons. You look at all the positive aspects of drinking coffee and then put them next to the negative aspects and see which column is bigger. In my mind the negative is bigger than the positive.

The Cons of Coffee
Here are some negative aspects of drinking coffee:

• It is addictive: Anything that is addictive is bad for your mind. It makes you become a very dependent person because you feel like you cannot function without it. How many people do you know that have to have a morning coffee before they feel human? A lot.
• It leads to other negativities: The other thing about addictive substances is that they lead to other negative substances. For example, when you drink a lot of coffee you will undoubtedly have sugar in it and sooner or later you will probably want more sugar. Another thing that coffee drinkers do is have a snack with the coffee. The more coffees the more snacks you have.
• It is expensive: If you are like me and you buy your coffees from the local cafe or Starbucks then chances are you are spending a lot of money. Let’s assume you buy one coffee everyday and each coffee costs $3.00. In one year you will spend $1095 on lattes. Perhaps you drink more than one per day – after a while this adds up.
• It makes you anxious: If you take a look at this post on foods that make you stressed you will see that I think that coffee is one of the main things that we consume that makes us stressed and anxious. When we drink coffee it speeds up our mind and then we have a crushing low afterwards. This is the main reason why I want to quit coffee.

The Pros of Coffee
Just to be balanced I thought I would include a few reasons why drinking coffee is a good idea. Seeing as this is a post on how to quit coffee it might be a good idea to skip over this section if you are a real caffeine fiend.

• It might prevent cancer: One of the main things that coffee studies show is that drinking a cup of coffee everyday might reduce the risk of cancer. However, these studies are never definitive because nobody is really sure what causes cancer or what totally prevents it. Someone might have a cup of coffee everyday but that might have two sugars and cream in it. Does this help prevent cancer? If you are going to believe that coffee prevents cancer you had better be pretty sure the study is done well. Make sure you do the research. I, for one, am not convinced.
• It helps concentration: Coffee has been shown to increase concentration. We can see this for ourselves when we drink our coffee in the morning. It wakes us up and helps us start the day in a focussed way. However, recent studies have shown that this effect does not last long with people who drink a lot of coffee. Coffee’s ability to wake you up and help you concentrate is massively diminished if you drink it everyday.

My mind is very important to me. If I am addicted to something I lose some of my freedom and I become a slave to that thing. This is, therefore, the main reason why I want to quit coffee. I don’t want to have any such addiction in my life. I want to be master of my own mind.

How to Quit Coffee With Meditation

photo credit: Helen K

First things first. I need to make it clear that when I say “meditation” I do not mean the type of meditation where you sit down on a cushion, close your eyes and chant some oriental syllables. Nope. What I am talking about is the type of meditation that you can do in your everyday life. My ebook Enlightening Stress Relief is based around this type of practical, everyday, effective style of meditating. You can do it while you are sitting at your desk, walking to work or driving in the car.

The reason you can do this is because meditation is about training your mind. The Tibetan word for meditation is “gom” and this means “to familiarize”. The idea in Buddhist philosophy is that through meditation you can familiarize yourself with your true self, your inner goodness or your Buddha-Nature. Buddhist believe that the true nature of a living being is enlightened wisdom, not evilness. This gives us huge hope. And by meditating you can actualize this hidden potential.

It also works for quitting coffee!

You can apply meditation to many things in one’s life. There is a meditation technique for every problem and overcoming addictions is one of them. Here are some simple meditations that you can do if you want to give up coffee for good.

1. Meditate on Compassion
If you are addicted to coffee then chances are you are drinking more than a few cups per day. This is excess coffee and far more than you actually “need”. One way to combat this addiction is to meditate on compassion.

When I was younger my mother would always scold me for not finishing my dinner stating that there were children in Africa who didn’t get food for weeks. At the time I failed to see how me eating my dinner would help them but as I grew older I realized that, as she did many times, my mother was teaching me about compassion.

This is a great way to overcome the greediness of coffee addiction. The next time you feel like a hot cup think about all the people in the world who have nothing. Think about how many coffees you have per day and whether or not that is really necessary. I have found that by thinking about compassion (others) I actually reduce the cravings I have about satisfying myself. It is quite powerful.

2. Do a simple breathing meditation
Quite often our desire to drink coffee arises because we are stressed, anxious or tired. We think that coffee will make us feel better. However, you can bypass this need for coffee by dealing with the initial problems of stress, anxiety and tiredness. The way to do that is with a simple breathing meditation.

If you calm yourself down when you are stressed you will minimize the need for coffee. A coffee won’t seem as necessary if you are having a great day and your mind is light and happy. Breathing meditation can do this.

Next time you feel stressed simply close your eyes and gently bring your attention to your breath. Focus on the breath going in and out of your lungs and the feeling at the tip of your nose. Begin to count each breath mentally. Count up to ten complete inhalations and exhalations.

This will reduce your stress significantly. Once you do this you will feel much less likely to use caffeine to numb your anxiety. And the great thing about breathing meditation is that the effects last longer. You will not experience the low that comes after a cup of coffee.

Conclusion on Quitting Coffee

Quitting coffee is not easy. It is a drug. It is addictive. It is all of those things that make it hard. However, you have an advantage. You now know that you are master of your own mind. You mind does not control you – you control it. This means that when you decide to give up coffee you are going to accomplish it because you are in the drivers seat. The addiction is in your mind. So is the solution. Try these simple meditation techniques and see if they work for you.

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We all spend way too much time on our computers. Our bodies are suffering. In this post I want to tell you about a few signs that can pop up to alert you that your computer use is affecting your health.

1. Sore wrists
If you have sore wrists it can be a sign that you have a nice case of carpal tunnel or RSI coming on. Sore wrists are extremely common but can be quite serious as many computer related wrist injuries can take years to heal, if at all.

If you are getting sore wrists you need to stop working every 10 minutes and shake them around, tense your fingers and give them a break. It is very important.

2. Sore back
The most common complaint that computer users get is that their back is always sore. This can be caused by bad posture, poorly set up desk height or the wrong type of chair. Take a look at this post on sore backs at work for some simple ways to fix the problem.

3. Sore eyes
Sore eyes come about for a few reasons. The most common one is that you are staring at the screen far too much and your eye balls are drying out and losing the essential moisture. This can cause damage over time. The other cause is having your computer screen light incorrectly. For example, you do not want to have sunlight shining directly on to the screen.

If you are getting sore eyes try to re-asses where your desk is placed and take regular breaks to give your eyes a rest. Try looking at some big views or some duller colors for a short time.

4. Increased stress
There is a new craze sweeping the modern world – computer related stress. I talked about it a lot in this post on Facebook addiction and I think it is something that many of us need to address before it gets out of hand.

Computer stress is a sign that your computing is affecting your health. Stress can cause many physical health problems such as headaches, stomach aches and even heart problems. Stress also lowers your immune capabilities. If you feel that your word processing, accounting, Facebook use or anything related to using a computer is stressing you out then you need to take time away from the keyboard. Do something else before that stress manifests physically.

Another option is to learn how to manage that stress using some of the simple meditations in my free eBook Enlightening Stress Relief.

5. Weight gain
Spending all day on a computer means that you are not getting a lot of exercise. Unless you take specific measures to go for a run or hit the gym the chances are that most of us computer users aren’t getting enough movement in the day. The easiest way to tell if you aren’t moving enough is if you are putting on weight.

Being overweight is a health hazard. It has been clearly established that overweight people are more likely to get cancer, heart disease, diabetes and so on. These are serious problems and they could be happening to you because of your computer use. If you are putting on weight then perhaps it is time to cut back on the computing and get out a little more.

The way I avoid this problem is to exercise before work as it means I start the day in an active way and get in my quota of exercise before work drains all of my energy.

Conclusion
These are not the only signs that you might get. Many people get headaches and sore necks and aching shoulders. The idea is to be aware of your body and take action as soon as you think something is not quite right. Don’t be fooled – using a computer too much can seriously affect your health.

top image: photo credit: Betsssssy

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Today I was watching the news and they had a story about a recent study that has shown that about one in six Australian’s can attribute their depression to their work. You can read the news article here.

I found this pretty interesting. I have never really considered that work would cause people to spiral into clinical depression. But I could be wrong.

I would love to hear what your opinions on this study are. Have you ever been seriously depressed because of work? Or has work magnified something that was already there?

What do you think?

top image: photo credit: azharc

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