Make Every Day Special With Feng Shui

When you pay the kind of attention to order, aesthetics, and positive emotion that are a part of decorating a space according to feng shui traditions, you make every day special. Feng shui is the ancient art of creating harmony in your environment so that you will be able to live a balanced and beautiful life. Having this goal reflected everywhere you look within your home will help you feel pleased and contented throughout the day. With feng shui, you can learn to cherish the balance and beauty of each moment, even when you are going about tasks that used to feel mundane and ordinary.

Many of us have experienced the difference that improving our home or workplace atmosphere can make in our attitude. Think of the last time you decorated for a party, and how good it made you feel to infuse your environment with a feeling of festivity and celebration. Feng shui works in much the same way. With feng shui, you place objects with the goal of changing the energy in a room so that it will be more positive. Feng shui creates a feeling of balance, which helps give a space an orderly and peaceful arrangement so that you will feel calm and happy when you are there. This can help you look forward to every day, not just holidays.

With feng shui, it is easy to make your home or office feel like a special place even if you don't know the first thing about interior design or aesthetics. When you decorate according to feng shui tradition, you follow a set of simple rules that will guide you as you create an environment that you and your loved ones will enjoy spending time in. Using feng shui as a guide to improving the look and feeling of an area will help you make the right decisions about everything from furniture placement to light sources. With feng shui, you will learn to create beauty so that you can enjoy it on a daily basis. When you re-create your home environment or your work space according to feng shui principles, you will be increasing the aesthetic pleasure that you get at all times.

There is no limit to how much incorporating feng shui into your home or workplace can improve your quality of life, or increase your happiness and sense of peace. Many people don't think of themselves as aesthetically sensitive, but you will never know how much of a negative impact your decor and furniture arrangements may be having on you until you change them for the better and enjoy the results. When you spend time in an area decorated in a feng shui style, you will feel lucky to be a part of such a calm, ordered, and harmonious environment. With feng shui responsible for surrounding you with beauty on all sides, even the simplest tasks can become a treat.

By: Christopher Byrnes

Feng Shui Lighting - The Facts

To a certain extent because of the way that it is represented in the media, feng shui is often represented as a somewhat mystical or mysterious idea that is difficult to study or to prove. However, scientific research shows that some aspects of feng shui have a measrably positive effect on attitude and mood. Traditional feng shui practices attempt to create a harmonious environment that allows its occupants to remain happy and relaxed, and studies show that at least some feng shui techniques are definitely more science-fact than science fiction.

Some of the most effective feng shui rules with a scientific basis for their success have concern lighting, and there is every indication that using feng shui techniques as a method of lighting your home will prove to be a wise decision. If the illue alludes to whether lighting your home according to feng shui principles will improve your quality of life, the answer is an incontrovertible yes. According to the scientific body of knowledge we have accumulated on the subject of lighting and emotion, feng shui offers a reasonable and viable method for improving one's mood by creating a calming atmosphere by means of light.

Feng shui aims to assist you in creating a balanced, harmonious atmosphere, and an important part of achieving that goal is finding lighting solutions that provide visibility without being garish or unpleasantly bright. Because of this, feng shui exponents often recommend including multiple sources of soft light rather than a single source of strong, bright light. Science supports this, showing us that having multiple light sources in a room allows the eye to see depth and contour more easily, which means optimum visibility. The lighting arrangements that feng shui suggest mimic the naturally multi-sourced light found in the outdoors, which is the kind of lighting situation that humans have evolved to see best in.

When we can see everything in our space, we are more likely to be calm and relaxed for a very simple reason that has its roots in out evolution. Although few people in the modern world are consciously afraid of being attacked by a lion or other fierce marauder, our brains are hard-wired to protect us by searching for predators. When there are no blind spots or dark areas nearby, we can be certain that there are no dangerous predators hidden in the vicinity. When you light a room according to the principles, you have the optimum lighting situation to lead to ease and therefore relaxation.

Traditional feng shui dictates that it is important to use a series of soft lights in different areas of the room in order to allow the unhampered flow of positive energy throughout the space. There is no way for science to evaluate whether this goal is achieved or not, but research can tell us that the lighting situation feng shui creates allows for maximum visibility, which in turn promotes relaxation, calm and happiness.

By: Christopher Byrnes

Benefits of Green Tea

Tea and Cancer Prevention Tea drinking is an ancient tradition dating back 5,000 years in China and India. Long regarded in those cultures as an aid to good health, researchers now are studying tea for possible use in the prevention and treatment of a variety of cancers. Investigators are especially interested in the antioxidants-called catechins-found in tea.

1. What are antioxidants?

The human body constantly produces unstable molecules called oxidants, also commonly referred to as free radicals. To become stable, oxidants steal electrons from other molecules and, in the process, damage cell proteins and genetic material. This damage may leave the cell vulnerable to cancer. Antioxidants are substances that allow the human body to scavenge and seize oxidants. Like other antioxidants, the catechins found in tea selectively inhibit specific enzyme activities that lead to cancer. They may also target and repair DNA aberrations caused by oxidants (1).

2. What is the level of antioxidants found in tea?

All varieties of tea come from the leaves of a single evergreen plant, Camellia sinensis. All tea leaves are picked, rolled, dried, and heated. With the additional process of allowing the leaves to ferment and oxidize, black tea is produced. Possibly because it is less processed, green tea contains higher levels of antioxidants than black tea.

Although tea is consumed in a variety of ways and varies in its chemical makeup, one study showed steeping either green or black tea for about five minutes released over 80 percent of its catechins. Instant iced tea, on the other hand, contains negligible amounts of catechins (1).

3. What are the laboratory findings?

In the laboratory, studies have shown tea catechins act as powerful inhibitors of cancer growth in several ways: They scavenge oxidants before cell injuries occur, reduce the incidence and size of chemically induced tumors, and inhibit the growth of tumor cells. In studies of liver, skin and stomach cancer, chemically induced tumors were shown to decrease in size in mice that were fed green and black tea (1, 2).

4. What are the results of human studies?

Although tea has long been identified as an antioxidant in the laboratory, study results involving humans have been contradictory. Some epidemiological studies comparing tea drinkers to non-tea drinkers support the claim that drinking tea prevents cancer; others do not. Dietary, environmental, and population differences may account for these inconsistencies.

Two studies in China, where green tea is a mainstay of the diet, resulted in promising findings. One study involving over 18,000 men found tea drinkers were about half as likely to develop stomach or esophageal cancer as men who drank little tea, even after adjusting for smoking and other health and diet factors (3). A second study at the Beijing Dental Hospital found consuming 3 grams of tea a day, or about 2 cups, along with the application of a tea extract reduced the size and proliferation of leukoplakia, a precancerous oral plaque (1).

5. Is NCI evaluating tea?

National Cancer Institute (NCI) researchers are also investigating the therapeutic use of green tea. One recently completed but unpublished NCI trial studied the antitumor effect of green tea among prostate cancer patients. The 42 patients drank 6 grams of green tea, or about 4 cups, daily for four months. However, only one patient experienced a short-lived improvement, and nearly 70 percent of the group experienced unpleasant side effects such as nausea and diarrhea. The study concluded drinking green tea has limited antitumor benefit for prostate cancer patients (5).

Other ongoing NCI studies are testing green tea as a preventive agent against skin cancer. For example, one is investigating the protective effects of a pill form of green tea against sun-induced skin damage while another explores the topical application of green tea in shrinking precancerous skin changes.

By: Robert Rogers

Holistic Approach in Medicine

A holistic approach in medicine is mainly aimed to assist the body's natural healing processes. Holistic medicines are the array of healing and self-help practice that are taken from many cultures.

The holistic approach in medicine is mainly achieved through the complementary or alternative therapies and medicine. They provide the non-conventional ways to relieve the symptoms and improve the quality of life. They include the use of acupuncture, herbal medicine, oriental massage, ayurvedic medicines, homeopathic medicines and naturopathic medicines.

The holistic approach in medicine is based on holistic stimulus. Holistic stimulus is the stimulus to the body to persuade it to heal itself. That is, patient's body is stimulated to continue with the job of healing.

There are many holistic stimuli in holistic approaches such as eating habits, stress release and regular exercise. Food is an important raw material for the body to regenerate itself. Hence a change in eating habits can result in major changes in health and amelioration of symptoms.

Stress is the main cause of many illnesses such as the irritable bowel syndrome, stomach ulcers, chronic headaches and high blood pressure. Meditation, breathing techniques, relaxation tapes and autogenic training are some of the effective stress releasing techniques in holistic approaches.

Regular exercise usually results in an improvement in many of the symptoms and it also makes the patients feel fitter and vibrant in themselves. Yoga is one of the effective forms of physical education in holistic approach that stimulates heart, lungs, muscles and other internal organs of the body. Renewed energy and positive attitude are the essential holistic stimulus on the patient's body to activate the healing processes in holistic approaches.

Holistic medicines are the wellness-based approaches in medicine and it usually involve the analysis of physical, nutritional, environmental, emotional, social, spiritual and lifestyle values. In all these holistic approaches in medicine, patients play an important role in applying the holistic stimulus to them. Holistic approaches in medicine usually include all the modalities of diagnosis and treatment including drugs and surgery.

A holistic approach in medicine stresses on education and responsibility by personal efforts to achieve balance and well-being. While assessing patient's body, holistic practitioners examine the nutritional status, exercise level, and environmental exposures of the patient. The aim of the holistic practitioner is to help the patient to find ways to become healthier and to enhance and strengthen the body's immune system. In contrast, conventional medicines have focused more on the treatment of the disease and the symptoms rather than the treatment of the person as a whole.

With rising incidences of non-curable diseases and illnesses as diagnosed by conventional medicines, more and more people are keen to seek a holistic approach in medicine to healing. It is good to know that many have reported successes.

By: Evelyn Lim