Healthy Living Maven for Every Age: depression

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Thriving in Menopause

Menopause - it is one of the more confusing and least-talked about times of a woman’s life.

Emotions can run wild, hormones flare and one’s own body feels like it is internally baking.

For the uninformed, life during this strange and scary period is seldom fun.

Traveling this new path of life need not be a time of melancholic dismay. New careers are launched, passions followed and new loves found or old ones more richly seasoned. Try not to mark this time as an ending. Rather focus on all the positive aspects womanhood offers as your ovaries close down.

Granted, if you are simultaneously reading this while blotting pools of perspiration or bleary-eyed from a lack of sleep, joyous concentration and menopause are hardly equal components of the same sentence.

To abundantly survive and thrive during this time, without chemicals or hormones, are found through natural options.

Herbal supplements lead the list of many gynecologic health providers and wellness advocates.

For centuries, starting with Native American tribes, black cohosh, a member of the buttercup family, proves an effective tool.

Under the product name of Remifemin, studies of extracts of the plant’s roots and rhizomes have demonstrated the power to relieve or lessen hot flashes, depression and sleep deprivation. Unlike pharmaceutical alternatives, doses of black cohosh has not displayed any estrogenic effect that are linked to diseases like breast cancer.

From Asia another underground herb delivers substantial comfort.

Growing alongside an umbel of white flowers, the dried long linear leaves of the lily-like Crinum latifolium also share a long traditional medicine history.

Now taken in pill form, the herb was once under the sole domain of the royal family of Vietnam. Its antioxidant and other uterine health benefits reduce the draining effects of sudden hot flashes, night sweats and mood swings.

Incorporating nature’s herbal supplements into a life with more emphasis on healthy diets and regular exercise brings fruitfulness to all areas of your new life.

For more information on Crila, the herbal supplement created from Crinum latifolium, click here.

To view Healing Quest’s practice Black cohosh/menopause episode click here.

The Art of Gratitude

You have received the highest-paying job in your career, the CAT scan came back negative or your child has been accepted to the college of their choice.

On the flip side, you are still under-employed despite years of searching, after 200K miles your car bit the dust, and your house has a major crack in the foundation.

Although it may seem surprising, what applies to all of those situations is gratitude.

To some giving thanks seems a quaint concept best suited to images of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock.

However, according to our friend Dr. Brenda Wade, the key to successful living is finding ways to appreciate every situation.

Like tennis, painting or creating a cheese soufflé practice makes perfect, and the same is true in developing a regular routine of gratefulness. As you daily set aside just a minute or two or longer your brain recognizes them and develops patterns. These patterns transform into a habit and soon your brain is on autopilot mode.

Maintaining a gratitude habit reduces stress, which leads to a stronger immune system able to ward off many diseases. While negative thoughts and actions, like violence and depression, receive more media attention some scientists and researchers, like at the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California at Berkeley, are shifting the focus on the positive elements of happiness.

Dr. Wade, a respected psychologist and author, says daily affirmations filled with thanks also keep us grounded.

She suggests saying the following

“I am grateful for all I have, and all I am about to receive,” and then adding in what gives you joy and what might be required to increase it.

Should your current life be more strive than thrive, start with words of thanks for what you possess - right now. You have breath and some clothes on your body. Do not place emphasis on what you do not have. Instead, strip down your gratitude to the simple essentials.

Then unleash the power of the Universe and thank it for what is in your future - a job, a life-partner, the acceptance of a medical condition. Let your grateful words pave the way into your life.

Thankful fulfillment is part of a healthy lifestyle.

To view Healing Quest’s episode on the practice of gratitude click here.

Be grateful for a healthy body thanks to these supplements.