Live Life Better By Nanette Wiser
Mind: Effective Learning Systems founder Bob Griswold pioneered the practice of Productive Meditation more than 45 years ago, and is launching their first mobile app WiseGuide, available on iOS or Android mobile devices. WiseGuide goes beyond the benefits of traditional mindfulness and meditation teachings to deliver a vast library of targeted, impactful programs that can help users achieve specific, life-changing personal and professional goals, including boosting athletic performance, building healthier relationships, cultivating better concentration, and managing addictions.
WiseGuide offers 120 topics to help manage stress, overcome fears, and break bad habits including smoking cessation, weight control, stress management, better sleep and more, including a children’s collection on self-image, self-esteem, effective studying and test taking. www.thewiseguideapp.com
Positivity Power: “Whenever you have strong negative feelings because unfortunate things are actually happening to you or you imagine that they might occur, see whether these feelings healthfully follow from your wishes and desires to have better things occur. Or are you creating them by going beyond your preferences and inventing powerful shoulds, oughts, musts, demands, commands, and necessities? If so, you are turning concern and caution into overconcern, severe anxiety, and panic. Observe the real difference in your feelings!” – Albert Ellis, Ph.D.
Body: Pucker up for better health. According to “Kissing: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Life’s Sweetest Pleasures” by author Andrea Demirjian, a kiss a day can keep the doctor away. A smooch burns 2-3 calories per minute, up to 5-26 calories for makeout kissing. A kiss can boost self-esteem, causing the brain to release happy-making neurotransmitters (oxytocin, dopamine, serotonin) and lower cortisol/stress. According to the book research, once a person starts kissing, blood pressure decreases and heart rate increases.
Ethnic Eats: Bayfront Health St. Petersburg and The Deuces Live partnered to bring in minority-owned food trucks for six months to serve lunch and dinner on the campus Tuesday and Thursday 11am-2pm and 5pm-8pm, serving ethnically diverse foods for the hospital staff, visitors, and Historic Roser Park neighborhood. “Food is an opportunity to connect communities and create shared experience,” says Bayfront Health St. Pete President John Moore. Looking for ideas for new dishes and unusual vegetables to try out at home? Start with takeout here.
Sip This, Not That: According to the New York Times, in 2021 U.S. consumers spent $6.7 million on supplements of chlorophyll and chlorella (a type of algae), a 17 percent increase. Sales of water with chlorophyll also jumped 356 percent. But the science doesn’t support the claims, yet, that chlorophyllin may have antioxidant properties, which help to combat the damage to our cells caused by an excess of harmful molecules known as free radicals. With no human trials or research to support this claim, it got its start in the 1950s as an additive to toothpaste and Clorets chewing gum for sweet breath. For mild dehydration and other health benefits, sip aloe juice mixed with chilled juice or in a fruit/veggie smoothie.
Health Tip: Battle the skeeters with catnip ingredient nepetalactone by mixing 20 drops of catnip and citronella essential oil to 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup witch hazel in a spray bottle.