Let the Drummer Kick

Although de-cluttering, balanced meals and exercise all benefit your health, music is something that is more powerful than all of those things combined.

I challenge you to find a song that moves you. Moves you to think... Moves you to get up... Moves you to lay down...

No matter what the situation, I truly believe that the right melody can and will heal you in more ways than modern medicine will ever be able to.

I'm not talking about the same songs you hear on the radio 16 times a day, I'm talking about something you make your own.

Your answer: www.Pandora.com

It's free, easy, interactive and I only wish I had known about it sooner. All you do is create an account (simple), type in one of your favorite bands/artists/songs and it will stream music to you that compliments your original selection. Genius.

Elizabeth Scott, M.S., in an article on stress management states,
Those who practice music therapy are finding a benefit in using music to help cancer patients, children with ADD, and others, and even hospitals are beginning to use music and music therapy to help with pain management, to help ward off depression, to promote movement, to calm patients, to ease muscle tension, and for many other benefits that music and music therapy can bring.

What a great way to increase your health, right!? Not to mention an even better excuse to love Prince...

Take a few minutes to watch this.

The Perfect Storm

I once hit the snooze button so hard, I broke my alarm clock.

I'm not a morning person, AT ALL, but I do enjoy staying up late! This is my perfect storm.

I remember my bedtime was around 8:30pm or so when I was young. My mom always said that I had to get a good nights sleep to be prepared for school in the morning but it didn't make sense to me why my parents didn't have bedtimes if they had to be up even earlier than me to be "prepared for work."

According to an ABC news article, all kinds of health problems can result from lack of sleep AND it turns out that kids aren't the only ones who should be following a bedtime routine...

Our natural sleep pattern should be waking up at sunrise, triggering a hormone release intended for dealing with all kinds of stress, and then settling down again at sunset, triggering a release of melatonin which helps us to sleep. The light is what triggers these releases and with the ever present laptop, cell phone, TV, fill in the blank, the regulation of these hormones become abnormal because they are tricked into believing its either day or night, when it's not.

A cycle of messed up hormones, eating sugary foods in the morning to "boost energy," and staying up late - allowing your brain to think its daytime - ends up repeating itself time and time again.

Make yourself a priority and evacuate this cycle before the storm hits again.

Too Much Junk in My Trunk!

I am a pack rat.

I save cards - especially the musical ones -, empty DVD cases in the hopes of one day finding its contents, single earrings (and shoes), you get the idea.

A lot of people share my same instinct to "save everything" but this process of hoarding can become a very serious problem for some people and may be related to psychological reasons.

An article in the NY Times referenced a study by Dr. David F. Tolin, of the Institute of Living in Hartford, which stated that, "When a hoarder was making decisions about throwing away items, the researchers saw increased activity in the orbitofrontal cortex, a part of the brain involved in decision-making and planning."

The study says that the average person doesn't implore as much decision-making as a hoarder might when it comes to getting rid of things.

Without as much clutter, a person would be able to use the judgment part of their brain in healthy and beneficial ways.

In a similar article on Bio-Medicine.org, researchers used a method called single detection theory (SDT) to see how well someone could detect a target in a cluttered environment. Participants, as expected, weren't able to detect targets successfully.

THIS IS BECAUSE WE, AS OBSERVERS IN EVERYDAY LIFE, TAKE EVERYTHING AROUND US INTO CONSIDERATION IN ORDER TO "DETECT" OUR DESIRED TARGET.

Hence, this is why we can't ever find our keys, cell phones or wallets.

Now it's time to start de-cluttering your life! ZenHabits has great tips to get started.

Think it's something more than clutter? See for yourself

Fighting the Economic Plague

It's no secret that the economy decided to take a vacation and leave the rest of us on survivor island. And while the economy is enjoying stimulus baths and pore-cleansing rituals, how is anyone suppose to keep track of staying healthy when making ends meet is the only thing in focus?

I wanted to start 2009 off on the right foot, like most hopeful New Years Eve fans, but the economy put me in a slump. I started worrying about everything; was I going to be able to pay my bills this month?, can I buy groceries?, will I over-draft if I put gas in my car?, and most of all - graduation (I will be a GMU college graduate in May 2009!) - I was worried about finding a job amidst all the unemployment.

All of this worrying got me no where but unhealthy and with the flu - causing me to miss work.

This was a wake up call - so to all of you out there in your bed with 102.5 fevers, say screw the economy and start making things better. Get healthy.

1. Stop putting off visiting your doctor. Check-ups will prevent sickness and missed days of work!

2. Stop substituting "expensive" healthy food with the dollar menu across the street. Kim Hohol, Dietician of CIGNA Medical group, offers some good alternatives to this trend (see: http://newsroom.cigna.com/images/56/HealthyEatingTipsAndRecipes.pdf).

3. EXERCISE! Gym membership or not (see: http://www.shape.com/workouts/) - you can find things to lift and places to run. I was one of those, "I'll start tomorrow" girls, but after a week of consistency it became a habit. It's now my favorite time to clear my head and think. Not to mention - I'm liking my legs and abs :)

These 3 things got me off to a great start and although I'm still not sipping on cucumber water, like the economy, I'm feeling better about myself and confident in a positive future - Good economy or bad.