GREEN TEA'S HEALTH BENEFITS
We’ve all heard that “green tea is good for you” but how many of us actually know why? Despite the fact that green tea remains one of the most popular beverages around the world, its health benefits are somewhat mysterious.
Though WebMD reports more than a decade’s worth of research about green tea’s health benefits, some of those studies question green tea’s role in burning fat, lowering cholesterol and fighting some diseases, including cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
So, what do we know about green tea?
Green tea has antioxidants: Also called catechins, the antioxidants in green tea help fight the cells that can damage DNA and cause cancer and certain types of heart disease. These same properties are found in grapes, berries, red wine and dark chocolate, however green tea’s minimal processing makes it a good bet. Even though we still condone eating tons of fresh fruit and vegetables, one recent estimate said green tea has 10 times the amount of antioxidants found in fruits and veggies.

Green tea has properties that might help fight cancer: As vague as that may be, scientists and researchers have identified a compound in green tea that can prevent and slow cancer growth in laboratory testing, however we don’t know how much green tea a person would need to consume in order to reap those benefits.  Marji McCullough, ScD, RD, the American Cancer Society’s strategic director of nutritional epidemiology, told WebMD that one of the biggest challenges to such research is finding populations that drink enough green tea and have for a long time. “With cancer, it’s always difficult to find the exposure time or the point at which the cancer cells begin to develop,” she said.
Green tea can help with weight control. Some nutrition professionals argue that green tea can aid in weight loss. If you’re drinking green tea while you’re eating pizza and cake, you won’t lose weight. However, green tea is thermogenic, so it can raise your core body temperature and help you burn more calories. So, if you’re already exercising and eating well green tea can help you meet your goals.
The quality of the tea you buy is important. While you might still get some of the nutritional and antioxidant benefit from drinking a beverage brewed with store-bought green tea bags, a higher quality green tea is called Matcha tea. Matcha is covered before it’s picked to emphasize the flavor and color and is stone-ground before being packaged into small-batch tins. In the Japanese culture, drinking Matcha tea is an important ritual, however in Western cultures, many people drink it solely for the taste and health benefits.

Have you been wondering “what’s all the fuss about green tea?” Now you can stop wondering and start drinking…green tea, that is. This flavorful beverage offers many health benefits to anyone who drinks it regularly. Green tea contains a potent plant nutrient known as epigallocatechin gallate, or EGCG, for short. But don’t fret, you don’t have to keep track of its chemical name to reap the health benefits. Here are 9 reasons to start drinking green tea or continue drinking it if you’re already hooked.



1. Green tea is a superb fat fighter. Its active ingredient, EGCG, increases the rate at which fat is burned in your body.
2. It targets belly fat. Research at Tufts University indicates that EGCG in green tea, like other catechins, activate fat-burning genes in the abdomen to speed weight loss by 77 percent.
3. It keeps energy stable by balancing blood sugar levels. EGCG improves insulin use in the body to prevent blood sugar spikes and crashes that can result in fatigue, irritability, and cravings for unhealthy foods.

4. Research shows it may be helpful against lung cancer. In an April 2010 study published in Cancer Prevention Research, EGCG was found to suppress lung cancer cell growth.
5. It may halt colorectal cancer. In numerous other studies, EGCG appears to inhibit colorectal cancers.
6. In research it appears to cause prostate cancer cells to commit suicide. A March 2010 study in Cancer Science indicated that EGCG aids the body by causing prostate cancer cells to commit suicide.
7. It may prevent skin damage and wrinkling. EGCG appears to be 200 times more powerful than vitamin E at destroying skin-damaging free radicals. Free radicals react with healthy cells in the body, causing damage so lessening their numbers may help reduce wrinkling and other signs of aging.
8. It contains a potent antioxidant that kills free radicals. Because it is a potent antioxidant it can positively impact a lot more than skin cells. Free radicals are increasingly linked to many serious chronic illnesses like arthritis, diabetes, and cancer.
9. It tastes good. If you’re not wild about the flavor, try a few different kinds. Try it iced or hot. Add some of the natural herb stevia to sweeten it if you want a sweeter drink. I wasn’t crazy about green tea the first few times I tried it, but now I love it with a fresh squeeze of lemon and a few drops of stevia over ice–et voila! Green tea lemonade. Mmmmm.
Reap the Rewards
Add one or two teaspoons of green tea leaves to a cup of boiling water, preferably in a tea strainer. Let steep for five minutes. Pour over ice if you prefer a cold beverage. Most experts recommend three cups daily. And, don’t worry it contains a lot less caffeine than coffee or black tea.

By Mother Teresa

No More Excuses

TenTips to Help You Stay Positive

The following ten tips can help you to experience the power of positivity:

• Keep a journal of things that make you happy, things that you enjoy, and people that you love. Read over what you’ve written frequently.
• Try to use positive statements, like “I can” and “I will” as much as possible.
• When you find yourself framing something negatively, turn it around and try to see the positive aspects of the situation.
• Surround yourself with positive people.
• Indulge in things that you enjoy.
• Smile.
• Be active. Physical activity can actually help you to build a positive attitude and maintain your sense of optimism in the face of struggles.
• Imagine successful outcomes. When you’re uncertain about something, close your eyes and see a positive outcome.
• Don’t let stress get the better of you. Take a deep breath and let your worries dissolve. 
• Have Faith and believe you also deserve to have what makes you happiest ,have a negative thought ,shake your head and change the channel  do this as many times as needed till your thoughts change

Dealing with Difficult People: How to Protect Yourself

At one time or another we all have to deal with difficult people.

The Whiner.  The Victim.  The Steam Roller.  The Know-it-All.  The Cry Baby.  And let’s not forget Sarcastic Sam.

Some difficult people become Masters specializing in just one technique – others do their damage by mixing it up.  No matter what the “technique”, most difficult people have the same goal:  they crave power and control over people and situations.
Additionally, not all difficult people you may have to deal with are difficult all the time.  For that matter, if you’re honest, it is most likely that, with very little thought, you can conjure up a time or two when you were a little difficult to deal with yourself.
No matter whether confronting an “always” difficult Know-it-All boss, or an occasionally Sarcastic Sam (or Samantha) Spouse – you are not defenseless.  The following are a few suggestions for dealing with both full and part-time difficult people.

Don’t Take it Personally

Ironically, one of the most useful techniques is not to become defensive when defending ourselves from the damage difficult people attempt to dish out to us.  Difficult people feed on the energy of our defensiveness.  The more angry or upset we become, the more in control the difficult person feels.
We become defensive when we take things personally.  When we take everything a difficult person is capable of dealing out personally we become frustrated and tend to express our defensiveness via our own negative responses such as anger or perhaps guilt.
The next time you are dealing with a difficult person focus not on how to defend yourself – instead focus on remaining calm.  Remaining calm is a signal to the difficult person that you are not relinquishing control.  It may take quite a few “sessions” – but if this technique is used consistently and repeatedly, the difficult person comes to understand that you are your own person with your own power and do not make it a practice of relinquishing control to others.

Walk a Mile in Their Moccasins

No matter how difficult a person may be, taking a moment to muster a little empathy is huge when it comes to creating positive outcomes when dealing with difficult people.  Don’t be stingy when it comes to making an effort to empathize with a difficult person.  Most difficult people are difficult because they have needs that are either not being met or they think aren’t being met.  A sarcastic co-worker who mocks your work may suffer from extreme insecurity.  While you certainly can’t expect difficult people to share their true motivation for being difficult, quite often an empathetic response can help to soften their demeanor towards you.

Take Care of Yourself

Not taking it personally and showing empathy when dealing with difficult people can be very useful.  However, perhaps the most useful technique when dealing with difficult people is creative visualization.  And, while creative visualization may be the last technique mentioned here, it is actually the first technique to employ before attempting not taking a difficult person personally and instead attempt to show them some empathy.
Difficult people are negative people – and it is important to protect yourself from the negative energy difficult people throw at you.  You not only have a responsibility to attempt to come to a positive resolution with a difficult person, your first responsibility is to respect yourself and protect yourself from their negative energy.  Creative visualization can be a very effective means to do just that.
For instance, the next time you have to deal with your Know-it-All boss visualize yourself placing a bullet (and negativity) proof wall between you.  Starting your day by visualizing yourself surrounded by a protective bubble or aura is also very powerful.  Or perhaps you visualize yourself as King or Queen and are protected by a moat surrounding the thick walls of your castle.
The very practice of visualizing you are protected from difficult people creates the positive energy necessary to deal with difficult people effectively.

Visualization Techniques: Detailed, Consistent, Believed

 Creating Reality

The hardest part about doing a thing, getting a thing, or becoming some “thing” – whether it is something that we need or something we desire (want) is belief.
For instance, we may need to get a new job because we need to make more money, or we may desire a new job because there are things about our current position we don’t like.  Maybe we consider it boring and want something more challenging, stimulating.
Of all the “New Age” techniques for manifesting our goals (making them “real”), creative visualization is perhaps the best known – unfortunately it is perhaps also the most misunderstood.
Misunderstanding the how and why visualization works often results in failure.  It is easy to become disillusioned about the power of visualization when, no matter how often or hard we concentrate on visualizing the outcome we desire it just doesn’t happen.
Many Americans first became aware of “visualization” as a technique when the Russians used the technique as central to training Olympic athletes – with great success.  Since that time, the idea of visualization as a tool to live a better life has become practically a mainstream assumption within American culture.
Visualize what we need/want and it will come.
And then it doesn’t – and all too often, rather than educate ourselves as to why it may not be working – we just give up and settle living lives in which we do not manifest our greatest potential(s).
To this day most of the best athletes employ creative visualization as a central part of their training program.  For those of us who like numbers, early Russian studies indicated that those who spent 25% of their time engaging in physical training and 75% of their time mentally training had more success than those who spent 100% of their time physically training.  In our everyday world, what that would look like to someone who wanted to improve their ability to say run a mile more quickly, and normally physically trained one hour a day 4 days a week would have more success if they spent one of those hours visualizing running their mile more quickly.
However, it is important to note that the Russians had their athletes engage in a very disciplined program.  The Russian criteria for this “mental rehearsal” included:

• Very detailed visualizations
• Visualization exercise(s) performed frequently and consistently

This means that while “daydreaming” may certainly be somewhat helpful when it comes to manifesting a goal or desire – following a consistent schedule and setting aside regularly scheduled times to practice creative visualization will most usually provide better results.

Creative visualization must be detailed

A common complaint of people wishing to employ creative visualization is that they can’t “see” – or create a clear enough picture.  They close their eyes and maybe all they see are colors, or even just a “blank screen.”  They are having trouble visualizing.  This is where detail comes into play.  So far we’ve been concentrating on visualizing (“seeing”) as it relates to improving athletic performance; however, creative visualization is just as powerful technique for achieving any goal or desire.  For example, you have decided to pursue finding another job.
You’ve set a scheduled time to visualize (say right before getting out of bed in the morning and right before going to sleep at night – both great times to visualize.)  You close your eyes and start thinking that you want to get a picture of your new job – and get nothing.  The more you strain to “see”, the blanker your mental screen gets.  Now is a great time to remember that you have five senses – not just one.
If you can’t see your new job – can you hear it?  Imagine a conversation you may have with a colleague or superior.  A very detailed conversation where you are expressing yourself to others with extreme confidence and competence.  Your listener, in turn, responds as you would wish them to in the most optimal circumstances you can imagine.
Can you smell your new job?  Perhaps your desk is near the coffee maker.  Now the conversation you have imagined has smell attached to it.  Can you touch your new job?  Maybe you can feel yourself standing by your desk with a cup of coffee in your hand having that successful conversation with your colleagues.
Now that you can hear and touch your visualization, you try to imagine you can see yourself at your new job, but – darn – all you can see is the color red.  Ask yourself, what is red about my new job?  And you realize that it is the tie or sweater a colleague you are speaking with is wearing.  Before you know it you can see, hear, and touch your new job – exactly as you desire it to be.

Creative visualization must be practiced consistently

Remember that creative visualization is often referred to as a “mental rehearsal”.  Those in theatre – actors, directors, and technical staff – have an intimate understanding of the importance of rehearsing – and they rehearse often.  Nor do they leave rehearsing to chance, there is a formal schedule put into place.  At first rehearsals are scheduled quite frequently.  In these first rehearsals performances are usually pretty choppy.  People forget their lines; actors have not completely embraced their characters.  Props are missing.
But, with frequent rehearsal, performances begin to improve.  Eventually, this scheduled, consistent, and frequent rehearsal results in performances where the actors forget they are on stage and become the play.  This is an excellent example of the power of creative visualization when it is performed in a scheduled, consistent, and frequent manner.

The role of belief in creative visualization

“To be it, you must believe it.” This statement is true on many levels.
First, psychologists report the power of something they term “self fulfilling prophesy.”  The basic premise is that whatever one believes about themselves or their circumstances – whether positive or negative – have a powerful impact on their behavior, thereby quite often causing this belief to become true.
For example, if a student believes they will flunk a test, it is likely that their study habits will be negatively impacted, reducing the amount of material they remember.  In addition, the thought that they will flunk the test causes them to become anxious and this high level of anxiety negatively impacts brain function.  The result?  At the very least that student does not perform to their true potential on the test and it is quite possible that the student will actually flunk their test.
The theory of self fulfilling prophesies makes a lot of sense when you consider the strong relationship between an individual’s level of self confidence and the beliefs they have about themselves.  If a person has no confidence in their ability to pass a test it follows that they have no faith that engaging in behaviors that support passing the test will be effective.  For example, they may not study as often or as long as they need to – or not take advantage of working with a study group.
However, visualization techniques can change a negative self fulfilling prophesy into a positive self fulfilling prophesy.  For instance, frequently, consistently, and in a detailed manner visualizing one’s self actually taking the test successfully is very powerful.  For one, the level of self confidence is improved.  Those who feel confident are not focused on perfection, they are focused on realizing their full potential.  In this case it is passing the test – not necessarily getting the highest grade in the glass.
An example of a specific visualization for passing a test is, as one is studying, to visualize placing information into a file folder and placing that file folder in a file drawer.  When taking the test and “stumped” for an answer, simply close your eyes, visualize the file drawer, open it, and pull out the folder with the correct answer.  This sounds silly – but there is science behind it.  This visualization helps to create new neural pathways and, when the visualization is used when trying to come up with the right answer or information needed to be able to solve a problem, the pathways to that specific information needed are engaged.  In other words, a “short cut” to the information needed to pass the test is created in the brain.

Detox with 4 Super Foods to Remove Toxins From, Heavy Metals, Pesticides, Drugs & GMO By-Products

26th September 2012
By: JB Bardot - naturalnews.com

Detoxing can be hard on your body and cause a wide variety of alarming side effects. After all, the substances being removed are usually pretty horrible, consisting of toxic chemicals from Teflon, vaccines, pesticide residues, pharmaceutical drugs, chemotherapy residue, heavy metals, aluminum, radiation, and even by-products from GMO foods. There are numerous detoxing agents and methods available — some more costly than others — and some producing very intense experiences with potentially dangerous side effects.

However, there are several ways to remove these noxious substances gently, with kindness to your system. These techniques may take a bit longer to achieve completion; however, if you have the time and are sensitive, or just don’t like pain, one of these methods should work for you.

Pectin

Fruit pectin is probably the most gentle method of detoxing contaminants. Pectin comes from the fibrous portion of the fruit and is most commonly found in the pith of limes, lemons and other citrus fruit as well as in apples. Other sources of pectin are bananas, grapes, carrots, and cabbage. Pectin helps to release heavy metals, chemicals and other substances into the blood stream, where it binds to them and flushes them from the body. Simply eating fruit high in pectin will help to cleanse your system, or you can add a pectin product to a glass of water, organic grape juice or fresh veggie juice to speed the detox process. Beware of pectin sold in grocery stores, as some brands may contain MSG. Check health food stores for the best products.

Cilantro

The delicious culinary herb cilantro, happens to be one of the most effective and gentle detoxifiers of mercury, heavy metals and other toxic contaminants. You can buy cilantro juice at health food stores or simply include the fresh herb in your diet as pesto or seasoning to control the amount consumed and limit unwanted side effects. It’s inexpensive and works without the addition of man-made chemicals. Cilantro also possesses antibacterial and antifungal properties, quickly reducing infection and inflammation as it works to clear your system.

Chlorella

Chlorella is a single cell algae sea vegetable that grows in fresh water. Some of the best cholrella reserves have come from Japan; however, use caution when buying Japanese chlorella due to possible exposure to radiation from Fukushima. Chlorella is an easy-to-digest superfood best known for being able to remove mercury and other heavy metals from the cells. Too much chlorella can produce side effects — mostly in the digestive tract — where it works best to bind to mercury, eliminating it. Start with the lowest quantity and work up slowly for a gentle detox.

Wheatgrass

Juicing fresh produce and grasses such as wheat or barley grass provides an excellent way to remove toxins from the system. Wheatgrass is high in nutritional content, and provides vitamins, minerals and all nine essential amino acids. Wheatgrass can be a powerful detox, so start slowly with only a small amount of juice to keep it gentle — 1/2 ounce a day — and work up to avoid symptoms.

Using gentle detoxing products requires that you repeat treatments over a period of time until all symptoms have cleared. Side effects may include nausea, vomiting, muscle aches and pains, dizziness and fatigue. Additionally, detoxing can cause a flare-up in your condition temporarily. It’s just the toxins leaving your system and should pass shortly. If side effects are severe, reduce the quantity of whatever you’re using to detox. If the symptoms continue, stop and consult your natural health practitioner for further instructions.