Your chakras and you :)

When it comes to your own personal wellbeing, there’s more to understand than simply if your body is healthy or not. Spiritual wellbeing is equally as important as your physical wellbeing; without a well-rounded overall “wellness,” you will feel run down even if your doctors tell you physically you are 100 %.

Nowadays, one of the more commonly referred to elements of spiritual wellbeing is your chakra. You’re probably asking yourself what a chakra even is. Your chakra, pronounced “chuckrah,” literally translates as “wheel” or “circle” in Sanskrit. It is a tradition that stems from Indian medicine, in which the chakras are said to be force centres, and the location through which energy flows into your body.

Each person is said to have seven major chakras. The seventh chakra, also knows as the crown, sits at the top of your head. The other six chakras are the: root, sex, navel, solar plexus, heart, throat, and third eye.  These start from the base of your spine and are lined up in sequence up to your neck and head.

Experts believe that having one of your chakra’s knocked out, or out of alignment, will cause the remaining chakra’s to have to pick up the slack. One sick chakra will impact the entire flow of energy into your body, and subsequently your spiritual and mental wellbeing. To find out if your chakras are aligned correctly, you can visit an energy specialist. However, there are simple means of aligning your chakra from the comfort of your own home, and all that is required is a quiet room, and 5-10 minutes to yourself.

Sit down, and relax your mind and body. For just 5 minutes out of your hectic schedule, take the time to really just focus on your own self, and your own wellbeing. Close your eyes, and open up your third eye chakra (imagine it as located in the middle of your forehead, just above your own eyes). Feel the healing energy of the universe coming down upon you as a beam of white light. Practice slow breathing, and allow the energy to flow throughout your body, without the interruption of the world outside. Taking these few minutes a day to yourself will not only help to improve your spiritual wellbeing, they will work wonders on your stress levels too!

Water, it does the body good

I read an article a few weeks ago about the health benefits of water, and why it is so crucial to make sure that you are taking in enough of the clear stuff. Since reading this article, I have objectively tried to make sure that I am drinking at least three litres of water every day. End result? I really am seeing my belly shrink, my hair is shinier, and my skin is much healthier. Not only that, but my energy levels are up, and I feel great! It seems tough at first to be drinking so much water, but, you really do get into the routine of it and it becomes normal. Only problem is...getting up at all times of the day to have to pee, constantly. Hahaha. Anyhow, let me share the wealth.

The water article!

Health Benefits of Water

How 8 Glasses a Day Keeps Fat Away

Incredible as it may seem, water is quite possibly the single most important catalyst in losing weight and keeping it off. Although most of us take for granted, water may be the only true "magic potion" for permanent weight loss.

Water supresses the appetite naturally and helps the body metabolize stored fat. Studies have shown that a decrease in water intake will cause fat deposits to increase, while an increase in water intake can actually reduce fat deposits.

Here's why: The kidneys can't function properly without enough water. When they don't work to capacity, some of their load is dumped onto the liver. One of the liver's primary functions is to metabolize stored fat into usable energy for the body. But if the liver has to do some of the kidney's work it can't operate at full throttle. As a result, it metabolizes less fat more fat remains stored in the body and weight loss stops.

Drinking enough water is the best treatment for fluid retention. When the body gets less water,it perceives this as a threat to survival and begins to hold on to every drop. Water is stored in extracellular spaces (outside the cell). This shows up as swollen feet, legs and hands.

Diuretics offer a temporary solution at best. They force out stored water along with some essential nutrients. Again, the body perceives a treat and will replace the lost water at the first opportunity. Thus, the condition quickly returns.

The best way to overcome the problem of water retention is to give your body what it needs -- plenty of water. Only then will stored water be released.

If you have a constant problem with water retention, excess salt may be to blame. Your body will tolerate sodium only in a certain concentration. The more salt you eat the more water your system retains to dilute it.

But getting rid of unneeded salt is easy -- just drink more water. As it's forced through the kidneys it takes away excess sodium.

The overweight person needs more water than a thin one. Larger people have larger metabolic loads. Since we know that water is the key to fat metabolism, it follows that the over weight person needs more water.

Water helps to maintain proper muscle tone by giving muscles their natural ability to contract and by preventing dehydration. It also helps to prevent the sagging skin that usually follows weigh loss -- shrinking cells are buoyed by water which plumps the skin and leaves it clear, healthy and resilient.

Water helps rid the body of waste. During weight loss, the body has a lot more waste to get rid of -- all that metabolized fat must be shed. Again, adequate water helps flush out the waste.

Water can help relieve constipation. When the body gets too little water, it siphons what it needs from internal sources. The colon is one primary source. Result? Constipation. But when a person drinks enough water, normal bowel function usually returns.

So far, we've discovered some remarkable truths about water and weight loss:

• The body will not function properly without enough water and can't metabolize stored fat efficiently.
• Retained water shows up as excess weight.
• To get rid of excess water you must drink more water.
• Drinking water is essential to weight loss.

How much water is enough? On the average, a person should drink eight 8-ounce glasses every day. That's about 2 quarts. However, the overweight person needs one additional glass for every 25 pounds of excess weight. The amount you drink also should be increased if you exercise briskly or if the weather is hot and dry.

Water should preferably be cold. It's absorbed into the system more quickly than warm water. And some evidence suggests that drinking cold water can actually help burn calories. To utilize water most efficiently during weight loss, follow this schedule:

Morning: 1 quart consumed over a 30-minute period.

Noon: 1 quart consumed over a 30-minute period.

Evening: 1 quart consumed between five and six o'clock.

When the body gets the water it needs to function optimally, it's fluids are perfectly balanced. When this happens, you have reached the "breakthrough point." What does this mean?

• Endocrine-gland function improves.
• Fluid retention is alleviated as stored water is lost.
• More fat is used as fuel because the liver is free to metabolize stored fat.
• Natural thirst returns.
• There is a loss of hunger almost over night.

If you stop drinking enough water, your body fluids will be thrown out of balance again, and you may experience fluid retention, unexplained weight gain and loss of thirst. To remedy the situation you'll have to go back and force another "breakthrough."

Happy Drinking!!!

Swine Flu and After 8....

The recent outbreak of the H1N1 (swine) flu virus, has created a great deal of turmoil on the global scene. With new cases continuously being reported, the World Health Organization (WHO) has been urging countries to adopt preventative measures in an attempt to stem the spread of the epidemic. Their recommendations include avoiding crowded areas, frequently washing one's hands, and avoiding contact with individual's suspected of carrying the deadly virus strain. Egyptian authorities however, took one step further in announcing the slaughter of thousands of pigs throughout the country, a move that has raised wide-spread criticism in many circles. The decision to cull 300-350,000 pigs in an area of Cairo known as "garbage city" under the pretense that it will help stem the potential spread of the H1N1 flu strain raised many eyebrows, notably, the WHO who has stressed that the virus is not contracted by exposure to pork products or pigs themselves, but that it is spreading through person to person contact. I have read many opinions on this decision by the Egyptian government, ranging from people who claim that it is a means of damaging the income potential of the mostly Christian farmers raising the pigs, to others who allege that the Egyptian government is merely going about eliminating pork and pork products from the country, as pork is considered haram (forbidden) under Islam. Regardless of what the motivations behind the decision, it remains that culling the pigs is an unnecessary step, especially when you take into consideration that the first case of swine flu in Egypt was a girl coming from the U.S., and further confirmed cases came from the American University in Cairo (AUC) - not "garbage city" where the majority of pig farmers and pigs reside. Things that make you go "hmmmmm."

I digress. The whole swine flu epidemic has hit the world hard, but in my little Cairo cocoon, I haven't really experienced first hand much of what is being done to combat the disease. That is, until this past weekend. A group of us decided to head down to a small bar in downtown Cairo known as "After 8." While this bar has a decent atmosphere, I disagree with their table minimum charge policy, where you have to have a table to get a drink (despite there only being, oh, 8 or so tables in the entire place) - and should you try to buy a drink (even if it is non-alcoholic) from the bar, expect to pay 80 LE. Absolutely outrageous. Anyhow, my rants about their pricing and management aside, I was quite impressed with After 8 this weekend. To set the scene, imagine a crowded Cairo street downtown, and a discreet looking Kiosk selling cigarettes and chipsy on the side of the road. Did you not know it was there, you would miss the aged "After Eight" hanging over this Kiosk. You actually have to physically walk through this Kiosk, into a dark and grimy alley behind it. Roughly 30 metres down, on your left you'll see After 8 (seriously...don't try finding this place if you don't know where it is haha).

The doorman greets our group, and pulls out this extremely invasive looking mechanism, which turns out to be a thermometer to stick in your ear. To ensure the "cleanliness" of the strange looking device, which i shall call the "ear probe," they stick a strange condom looking thing on the end of it, and replace with each use. When first approached by the bouncer with his ear probe, i had no idea what he was trying to do, and flashed back to the days of school, when sent to the school nurse for a "routine check-up" with the ever present false promise of "I swear the needle won't hurt." My friend Kat was the first one to go, and her expression was priceless - jaw dropped, eyes watering, fingers massaging her ear lobe once the probe had finished its job. Her ear was violated, but one beep later, and she was cleared to go into the pub. I questioningly look at the bouncer, who in his broken English points to the ear probe, then at Kat's ear, and mutters "swine flu....Inside very hot!" I was having a difficult time keeping a straight face at this point, which was only further made difficult once it was my turn for the ear probe. Anybody that has been to After 8 can understand the humour in this situation, as you're really more likely to catch the virus standing outside the bar in the nasty dirty alley way than you are inside. But hey, our temperatures were cleared, and inside we went for a night of good music, combined with terrible karaoke! There's something about karaoke nights, that bring out the part in people that just crave singing songs that you could hang yourself to, it can be so damn depressing. Until of course, you have that person that thinks they can sing grab the microphone, blast out their song, wait for the applause which never comes, then question "hmm, maybe I was "off" today?" Which this weekend, would have been me and Rena. YES for bad singing and Ear probes! But seriously, hats off to After 8 for doing their little part in trying to prevent the spread of swine flu. I'm doing my part in having developed an OCD like obsession with hand sanitizers....