Let us give thanks for what we are and for the circumstances God has given us for our personal journey through mortality.  Dallin H. Oaks

Even though I have no plans to celebrate the holiday myself, I thought that since this is Thanksgiving week I’d jump on the band wagon and put up this short post on gratitude.

Not too long ago I wrote a post about trials and how things usually work out in the end.  I think this season of gratitude gives us the perfect opportunity to look back at the trials we’ve had over the past year to see how they’ve changed and molded us and to be thankful that we were able to come out on the other side.

If you look at the world with a negative attitude. That’s what you’ll see. You’ll see the negative. But, if you have a positive attitude. You’ll see things around you that reaffirm your positive attitude. Choose to be grateful and to see the good in your circumstances and you will be happier and healthier.

Here’s a short video about just that.

What are you thankful for?

Photo by purplbtrlfy

Temporomandibular joint syndrome (TMJ) can be quite painful. For sufferers of this syndrome the pain can be so bad that it greatly reduces their quality of life. Finding relief can be frustrating journey that leads you down many dead end roads. According to Dental Guide USA, TMJ is the second most common musculoskeletal condition that causes pain and disability. So, TMJ No More could be a good resource for people with this problem who are looking to reclaim their lives from chronic pain. Does it really work though?  That’s the question we need to look at today.

What is TMJ syndrome?

TMJ syndrome, also called TMJ disorder or simply TMJ, is a dysfunction in the  joint of the jaw. This dysfunction can occur because a injury of the joint itself. Wear and tear of use and age or an autoimmune disease like rheumatoid arthritis can attack the tissue of the joint. It can also occur when the muscles around the joint become too tight throwing the joint out of alignment. The muscles of your face can become tighten because of trauma like an accident or fall. It can also occur because of long time bad habits like grinding your teeth or cracking your jaw.

When it does occur you can have pain in your neck and shoulders as well as in your face and jaw area. You may experience limited range of motion in your jaw (it won’t open wide) or the jaw may become locked when you do open it wide. The jaw joint will click and pop when you open and close it. Your mouth may swell on the side that’s affected. You may also experience headaches, dizziness, tinnitus, and nausea.

Convention Treatment

When you get treated for  TMJ the doctor may advise you to rest your jaw for a while. You’ll be put on a diet of soft foods and advised to avoid gum and hard candy. You can use warm compresses on your face to relieve the pain and pain killers. You also may be fitted with a bite guide or splint.

Pain medication like cortisone can be injected directly into the joint. This will cause temporary relief, but doesn’t address the root cause of the problem. Your doctor may choose to inject a solution into the joint to clean it out. This helps the situation and can be quite a successful treatment for some people. The last resort is surgery.

TMJ No More

TMJ No More was written by nutritionist and medical researcher, Sandra Carter. Carter struggle with TMJ for 12 years and searched every possible way from conventional medical treatment to holistic therapies to get relieve. The first part of the book chronicles her experience. She explains how her pain first occurred and slowly got worse until it was unbearable. Once her pain took over her life, started doing research herself to figure out what she could do to cure her TMJ.

The book then outlines in detail what she did to cure her TMJ. It includes living a healthy lifestyle of course. Eating right and exercising really does affect all aspects of your physical health.

The book also includes exercises and stretches that you can do to help heal your jaw. The descriptions of the exercises are well written and easy to understand and the illustrations of the exercises are clear and professional.

The only issue I had with the book is that in the healthy eating section Carter recommends eating soy. Soy is toxic and should only be used in your diet in the fermented form. Fermented soy is found in foods like miso, natto,  and tempeh.

Other than that  minor issue, I think the book offers some good advice. Like most books on similar topics you have to do some work. You need to make sure you do the exercises and stretches described on a regular basis to see results. In general self-care takes work, but it’s well worth the effort.

If you’re interested in finding out more about TMJ No More, click here. That is an affiliate link so if you buy the book, I’ll get a percentage of the sale.

Photo by lanuiop

I have some responsibilities in my life that I don’t really like. We all probably have responsibilities that we’d rather not have. The way we chose to deal with these responsibilities can affect the quality of our lives.

I am the perfect example of what not to do. I should rephrase that to say that I used to be the perfect example of what not to do. I’m very dependable, and I always try to live up to my responsibilities. The problem was not whether or not I’m doing what I should. The problem was my attitude about them. I felt generally annoyed by the tasks I was required to do. I complained constantly about them. I did them, but I did them begrudgingly.

Your attitude affects your happiness. This is obvious to most people. These tasks that are required of me need to get done. Whether I do them and complain the whole time or I do them and feel good about them. I have to do them. That’s the part I didn’t get until a few weeks ago. I thought that somehow complaining and trying not to do them would make them go away. I was definitely wrong about that. It seemed like the more I complained and drug my feet about it the bigger and more time consuming the task got. The more I resisted it the worse it got. The worse it got the more I wanted to resist. It was a vicious cycle.

Recently, I’ve decided to change my attitude. I’ve decided to look for the enjoyable and good things in these tasks that I must do. Many of these things are acts of service for others that I have to do. Looking it them as things I do to help others and concentrating on how to best do them has made a big difference to me. I’ve been able to even enjoy some of the things I hate doing. I have to admit that isn’t true for most of the things. I still don’t like them, but I don’t dread them like I used to. I don’t have any difficulty doing them anymore. I don’t get that awful feeling I used to get in my heart when I think about them. Simply changing my attitude about those things made me feel so much happier.

I don’t waste considerable amounts of time thinking about how much I hate doing those things. I don’t bring the negative vibe of complaining about those things into my body and into my house. I just do them.

That seems like such an easy lesson to learn, but how how has it taken me? 35 years, that’s how long. Even though we all may know that our negative attitudes affect the way we do things and our quality of life, how many of us continue to have the same bad attitudes?

Your reaction to your surroundings become habits. They become very deeply ingrained habits that are difficult to break, but with effort they can be broken. It will take effort. I have to try to catch every negative thought that enters my head and purposefully replace it with something pleasant. I’m just starting to do this and it’s been an incredibly important lesson for me. It’s been hard too, but I have to say it’s working.

Photo by Eggybird

When I woke up this morning it was the most miserable day ever. The wind was howling, rain was pouring down and the sky was dark. “What a miserable day,” I thought, “I won’t be walking to the grocery store today.” Normally, I walk to the store and I have a few things to pick up for dinner tonight. A few minutes ago, I noticed the sun shining on me as I sat at my desk.  When I looked out the window the sun was shining and the sky was perfectly clean and blue. It looks like I will be walking to the store after all.

That got me thinking about the way life works out. It’s been nearly a year and a half since we moved to the UK. Honestly, our first months in the country were some of the most trying times in my life. We couldn’t find a place to live, our money was quickly running out and our whole family was stressed. Those were hard times. When they were happening I didn’t know how we would get through them.

All this time has passed and now we have a place to live. My husband has started to find more and more work that is better quality than the work he did in Florida, my websites are starting to take off, and my stepson is enjoying school. Even he says that the difficult times we experienced when we first moved here really helped him to mature and appreciate the things more.

When we were going through all of that my stepson was very hard to deal with. He was complaining all the time and struggling to cope. I bet that in a million years he’d never have thought that one day he’s be glad that he experienced it. That’s the  thing about trials. They’re hard–that’s obvious–but when you come out the other side you come out a better person.

Things have a way of working out. Even when you feel like all the terribleness around you will just swallow you up, don’t let it. Don’t give up. If you keep moving forward, if you keep trying to better your situation, it will work out. I look back at things that have happened in my life that at the time were extremely difficult and I can chart how that experience changed the course of my life and made me who I am today. I would never change that for anything.

It may be hard to see the good in your experience when it’s happening to you. You may not be able to even imagine how it might work out in the end, but know that if you keep trying to push through it eventually you will. God or the universe or however you want to think of it will not give you an experience that you cannot deal with. Don’t fall down on your hands and knees thinking, “Why me?” Get up and start figuring out what you need to do to get out of that situation.

One day you’ll look up and notice that the clouds have parted. You may not even know when it happened exactly, but it will and you’ll be grateful that you learned that lesson and were able to move a little bit closer to becoming who you were meant to be.

Photo by Februum

Just a short post today about something I was thinking about after a trip to the post office.

There used to be two post offices within walking distance from my flat. The man that worked in the one closest to me was miserable. When I went into post office I’d always try to be extra happy. I’d smile and make a joke, but he would never even look up at me and he’d always had the most depressed expression on his face. A couple of times my husband got him to smile, but those times were few and far between.

The man who works in the post office a little farther away from my flat is just the opposite. Whenever I go in there I leave feeling happier than I did before. He always has a smile on his face and is ready to make a joke. Visiting that post office is quite a pleasant experience.

Working in a post office probably wasn’t either man’s main ambition in life as a youth. Maybe one wanted to be an Olympic athlete and the other wanted to be a movie star, but they both ended up working in the post office. One man is obviously miserable and the other makes the best of his situation. He chooses to be happy.

The miserable man’s post office was closed down a few months ago because of budget cuts. It was sad really. He made a big sign out of poster board that said “CLOSED.” He hung the sign on the counter the day his post office closed, but still sat in the post office behind the counter for a few days with his sign up. He didn’t seem to be doing anything in there. He just sat behind the counter looking miserable. It was really very sad.

Do What You Love and Love What You Do

You should find work that you love. That should be everyone’s goal, but I know finding something to do that pays the bills and ignites your passion can be difficult. You may be forced to take a job that isn’t exactly ideal, like working in the post office. If you do find yourself in that situation, try to find the good in the work that you do. Look for the enjoyable parts. Know that job doesn’t have to be last forever. You can also look for new work, but while you’re in the job you have try to enjoy it.

You spend most of your day at work. If you’re miserable their, you’re spending most of your day being miserable. Being miserable is not good for your health.

Photo by Mike Cattell

I’ve mentioned on this blog that I soak my grains before eat them. I thought I’d write about why I soak them and how I soak them.

Why you should soak your grains

I discussed this briefly in my post about the Paelo diet, but I thought it would be worth going over again.

I’m sure that you’ve heard before–probably when you were quite young–that you shouldn’t eat an apple seed because they’re poisonous. Most of us instinctively know that eating the seeds of fruit is not such a good idea. You probably don’t eat them for practical reasons because they’re hard and annoying, and when you accidental bite down on them they have a bitter, unpleasant taste. The seeds are like that because they don’t want to be eaten. It they are hard and taste bad animals will just swallow them whole when they’re eating. The seeds are covered in a protective coating so they can safely pass through the digestive system. They come out the end intact along with a nice bit of fertilizer so they can plant themselves in the ground and grow. So that’s the story of a seed and how fruit plants protect their young.

What is a grain? A grain is a seed just like the pit in a fruit is. Wouldn’t it make sense that plants that produce grain have similar methods to keep their young safe?

Grains contain chemicals called antinutrients. The antinutrient, phytic acid, binds to zinc, calcium, magnesium, copper and iron blocking their absorption into your intestinal tract. Enzyme inhibitors in grains stress the pancreas and inhibit digestion. You can think of it as the plant saying, “You can eat my babies, but I’m going to make sure your unhealthy because of it.”

Some animals have evolved digestive systems that can break down these antinutrients and enzyme inhibitors so they have no effect on them. They have long intestinal systems and multiple stomachs. We humans haven’t done that so we have to break down these bad things before we put the grains in our bodies.

Soaking and Sprouting

Using methods like soaking and sprouting to prepare your grains and legumes breaks down the antinutrients in them so your body can easily digest them. If you look at traditional cultures’ methods of preparing grains and legumes you’ll find a long tradition of soaking, fermenting and sprouting. The fermenting process in making sourdough breads helped make the gluten in the wheat more easily digestible. In many Asian country rice is soaked before it’s cooked.

I’ve only started soaking my grains this year so I’m not old hat at it like some other people are, but here’s what I do.

My family eats rice more than any other grain. I always cook with brown rice. I soak my rice for a few hours before I cook it. Usually I squeeze a lemon into the water, about 1 tablespoon per every cup of water. Then I soak the rice for a few hours. I rinse it well before cooking it. I might change the way I soak my rice. While doing research for this post I came across this article. So I may started soaking my rice for longer.

Beans and legumes should be soaked overnight. First rinse the beans well. Then soak. Just like I do for the rice, I add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice per cup of water. Rinse the beans before cooking. The acid in the lemon juice helps break down the antinutrients. You can use vinegar, kefir whey or ferment buttermilk instead of lemon juice in any of these soaking instructions.

Recently, I’ve started eating oatmeal or porridge for breakfast. Oats should be soaked for 24 hours before you cook them. I add equal parts oats and water to a bowl with a squeeze of lemon juice. Then I let it soak until the next day. In the morning I add the same amount of milk as oats to a pan and heat it slowly. Then I dump in my soaked oats. Stir it up and cook for a few minutes. You can use water instead of milk.

I haven’t started baking yet so I can’t give instructions on that. Once I start I’ll keep you posted. If you want to find out more about soaking your grains check out the Weston A. Price Foundation.

Photo by Jonathan Gill

I was reading a blog post the other night about the habits of healthy people and one of the habits really stood out to me. It could be applied to most everything not just health. The quote was “healthy people talk themselves into doing, being, living a certain way. Unhealthy people talk themselves out of it.”

Talking yourself out of it

I wonder how many of us are guilty of doing this. I think that there are many. I hear people make excuses that add up to talking themselves out of things all the time. Does any of this sound familiar to you?

“I’d like to travel, but I don’t have the money.”

“I wish I could eat healthier, but I just don’t have the time.”

“I’d like to start a blog, but I don’t know what to write about.”

“I wish I could exercise, but I’m just too tired.”

“I hate my job, but I’ll never find anything better.”

These are just a few examples of the millions of excuses people make everyday that keep them from changing. I’m guilty of it too sometimes.

When I first decided to start blogging, I looked into it thoroughly. It was something I wanted to do, but I spent so much time in the beginning making excuses as to why I couldn’t do it.

“I don’t have the time.”

“I don’t know what to write about.”

“Maybe I don’t have anything worth saying.”

“Why bother? No one will read it anyway.”

Can you believe I was such a big pile of negative, about this. I spent months doing this.

That’s called talking yourself out of something and doing that made me waste six months that I could’ve spent learning and blogging. That kind of attitude gets you nowhere.

Talking yourself into things

You can turn this around by talking yourself into the things. Becoming success and making great changes in your life require that you take some risks. You need to get up and do something different. That’s not easy. When it seems too hard to take that first step you need to give yourself a little pep talk.

Instead of making excuses and deciding why you can’t do something, find a way to do it.

Finally after six months of making excuses, I switched my thinking and signed up to start my first blog on Blogger. It’s not on blogger anymore, but it’s still going strong. From that first attempt of internet writing I’ve started other blogs–some of which have been miserable failures–and three websites.

All of that because I woke up one morning and decided to stop talking myself out of it. It’s that simple. Isn’t great how some solutions are so simple?

If you really want to do something stop talking yourself out of it and start talking yourself into to it. Once you start talking yourself into it you’ll find that you are able to find solutions to the problems that are holding you back.

If you want to find out the other Habits of Healthy People check out Body Incredible.

Photo by notsogoodphotography

I wanted to talk about diet today and some of the changes I’ve made in my own diet. My dietary philosophy has changed a bit since I started this blog and I wanted to say something about that. When I first started Art of Balanced living I only ate fish and no meat or poultry. My dairy consumption was very limited and I drank soy milk and ate tofu occasionally. I avoided fats especially saturated fat and used vegetable oil in cooking regularly. I was always on the look out for the healthiest oil, but it was always some sort of vegetable oil. I only wanted to eat healthily and I wanted to feed my family the healthiest meals possible. I still do, but the way I approach it has changed a bit.

Since moving to the UK, I’ve been doing a lot of research about food and health. My research has led me to change my eating a bit. Firstly, I eat meat and poultry now. It’s funny because when I moved here I honestly thought I was just a step away from becoming a vegan, but I started eating meat mainly for convience. It was only supposed to last for until we moved into our own place. I just thought it would be easier when we were staying with other people if I ate meat. So I started doing that. I hadn’t been a vegetarian for very long so I didn’t really have the negetive side effects that many people who switch from being a vegetarian have. My system hadn’t yet forgotten how to digest meat.

I’d started eating a semi-vegetarian diet because I was trying to shrink my uterine fibroid tumor and read a lot of things about fibroid shrinking and diet and thought that was the best thing to do to shrink it. I also wanted to do the best thing for my health. So many people in my family have high blood pressure and high cholestrol. I didn’t want to be one of those people.

Honestly, even though I told people that I felt great I felt tired much of the time when I was a vegetarian, but I was so sure it was the right thing for me to do that I was determined to stick to it. I wasn’t a junk food vegetarian. I ate fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. Most of the food I ate was freshly prepared.

I used to think that their was one way to eat and that all people needed to eat that way and that way was vegetarian. I believed that eating meat was the cause of most of the disease in society today. I really believed that. That’s what all the studies say, right? But now I think that’s not necessarily the truth. If you compare the health of a vegetarian, who is pretty health conscious to a meat eater who is eating a standard diet consisting of processed foods and factory farmed meat, of course the vegetarian will be healthier.

If you look at the diets of indigious people throughout the world, they eat a variety of foods. Some eat diets that are rich in sweet tropical fruits, some survive on mostly meat. Though we’re all the same species we don’t all thrive on the same diet.

I don’t try to get rid of the fat in my food now. I drink whole non-homogenized milk that I get directly from the farm instead of soy milk because I learned that soy milk contains anti-nutrients. I eat only free range organic meat,  poultry, and eggs. All of my cooking oils are cold pressed and I only use extra virgin olive oil, extra virgin coconut oil and butter for cooking. We eat a lot of fresh vegetables in season and fruit in season. I soak and cook my own beans and legumes. I avoid using canned food.

My family still has a sweet tooth. We still like cookies sometimes and pies but I make raw desserts and when I do make sweets that get baked in the oven they are made with buckwheat or quinoa flour and sweetened with honey.

So why am I telling you all of this? I’m telling you because if I can do it I know that you can too. Cutting out processed food and eating healthily is challenging at times but it can be done. If you make the commitment to do it, you’ll be able to. There is a food revolution going on. Don’t you want to be part of it?

Photo by Selma90

Your life is packed full of activities. Most people’s are. It’s become so much a part of modern living. We have an endless list of commitments and there’s always something that needs to be done. It is  part of modern living. Our ability to do so much makes us do more and more.

The time spent on work or other commitments is important, but when it comes down to it the most important thing is family. The relationships you built with relatives and friends are the bonds that last and truly enrich your life. Here are 10 activities you can do with your family that will help you build relationships and won’t cost you any money.

Play a board game. I’ve never been into games, but my sister and mother love them. Even now getting together as a family to play some games is fun. It’s nothing I’d consider doing normally, but knowing that it makes them so happy is enjoyment enough for me.

Go on a picnic. Pack up a few simple foods and find a nice spot to eat outside. It breaks up the routine and is a fun weekend activity for the family. I love this time of year when the leaves are changing and there’s a slight chill in the air. You have to go on your picnic soon though. The winter cold will be here before you know it.

Take a walk. Most evenings we go for a walk after dinner when the weather is nice. Walking gives you some exercise and also gives you the chance to talk about things that are going on in your lives without the distraction of the television or the internet.

Talk. Find out what’s going on in your kids’ lives. Talk about what they’re doing. Find out about friends, school, and other interests. Don’t do this in an overly questioning grilling sort of way. This can be done naturally. Showing sincere interest will help them open up. Even your teenagers want to know that you’re interested in their lives even though they don’t act like it most of the time.

Cook together. Make something delicious as a family. Make sure to get everyone involved in some way. It will help teach your children about how to cook and also help all of you work together. Food you make together always tastes better.

Read a book together out loud. We used to get novels from the library and read them aloud together. We haven’t done that in awhile, but when we did it was something we all enjoyed and looked forward to. You can choose a book with an interesting story that would be appropriate for the whole family. Have everyone who can take a turn reading a few pages. Doing this helps foster a love for reading in your children. It’s also good because once the book gets going, it becomes a time that everyone looks forward to because they all want to know what’s going to happen next in the story.

Play a sport. When I was little we had a ping pong table in the house. I really looked forward to family ping pong tournaments. I was never very good but it was always tons of fun.

Go to a museum. Art museums and science museums can make great family outings. There are plenty of free museums out there too, so going to one doesn’t have to cost you anything.

Draw. My husband and stepson love to draw. We’ve spent time together just drawing pictures. Once years ago we all drew pictures of each other. My stepson was so happy about doing that that he kept all the pictures.

Taking a few minutes out of your busy life to slow down and do something relaxing with your family helps put life ito prospective. What are you doing all that work for anyway? You’re doing it to help your family have a better life. Well the best way to improve their lives is to take the time to show them you really care. Those are the things that children remember when they become adults. Those are the times you’ll treasure.

Photo by Pink Sherbet

The other day I was reading something aloud to my husband when I came across a word I’d never seen before. Because it was a new word I had no idea how to say it, so I just kind of said something garbled and moved on. My husband stopped me though and said, “Do you have some kind of problem reading?”

I was shocked and appalled by this question. “What do you mean by that?” I asked.

He explained that I do this thing when I read new words were I just say something else instead of what the word really says and try to make it a joke, but he’s started to think that I had some kind of problem reading.

He’s right I do, but I always thought I’d done a great job of covering it up. I never thought anyone suspected anything.  I have a bit of a problem sounding words out. I guess I was absent on that day of school. I read all the time but not usually out loud so it’s not really a noticeable problem.

What does this have to do with you? Here’s what it has to do with you.

Stop Trying to Be Perfect

The only perfect person in this world is my mother, or at least that’s what she tells me. So you can stop trying to be perfect. No one’s expecting you to be. You may be striving for perfection in life, but you certainly haven’t gotten there yet so don’t pretend you have.

When you’re spending your time trying to hide a flaw you’re lying to others and  to yourself. If you don’t acknowledge the problem you’ll never be able to do anything about it. It’s like there’s a wall right in front of you and you say, “There’s know wall there.” Then just keep walking straight towards it. What’s going to happen? You’ll walk right into it that’s what. You can decide to walk along next to the wall for awhile, but if the place you need to get to is no the other side of the wall, you’ll never get to it without dealing with the obstacle of the wall.

Knowing your weaknesses will help you know your strengths.

Once you admit your flaws, you’ll be able to figure out what your strengths are more easily. For every weakness there is an accompanying strength. For example, a blind person’s other senses are usually heightened to make up for his blindness. If a blind person tried to pretend he wasn’t blind and walk out in the street unassisted that would be stupid and dangerous. Pretending you have no weaknesses may not put your life in danger, but it’s equally as stupid.

Let’s say you had a shovel and a broom. You could try to sweep your kitchen floor with the shovel. You may be able to use your hand to push some dirt up on it, but you wouldn’t do a very good job. You could try to use the broom to dig a hole. You could sweep the same spot over and over and maybe you’d get a little indentation in the dirt, but it would be hard work. Using the correct tools for the job will give you much better results.

Make a List.

Sit down and make a list of the things you don’t do well. I know this sounds like a self-esteem lowering exercise but trust me it’s not. It’s simply a honest look at reality. Are there things on that list you want to improve? If so make a list of way s you can improve them and people who might be able to help you improve them. Are there things on that list that you’d rather not deal with? That’s fine. Like I said before no one expects you to be perfect. If your imperfection isn’t putting your life or the life of others in danger and it’s not taking away from the quality of your life that’s fine. Don’t do it if you really don’t want to, but admit that it’s a weakness and don’t try to pretend it’s not. Own up to the fact that it’s a weakness you’d rather not deal with.

Now turn the paper over and list your strengths. Some people have a problem with this so you may need to ask other people what they think your strengths are. This list is just to show yourself what you do well so you can have confidence when you’re doing those things. You may even want to develop some of those strengths further. Doing so could open up new doors in your life that you’ve never even imagined.

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Don’t run away from who you are, embrace it. To quote a popular 80’s classic, Ebony and Ivory, “There’s good and bad in everyone.” Recognizing that in yourself and others will help you lead a happier life.

Photo by jcoterhal