10 Life-Enhancing Things You Can Do in Ten Minutes or Less

By Barton Goldsmith, Ph.D.

Created Apr 17 2010 - 9:48am

 

It usually takes us much longer to change our moods than we’d like it to take. Here are ten things you can do in ten minutes or less that will have a positive emotional effect on you and those you love.

1.    Watch "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch. See it online at Oprah.com. This is a deeply moving segment that may be the best ten minutes you've ever invested in front of a computer.

2.    Spend a little while watching the sunset with your mate. Nothing extra is necessary. Just sit and take in the natural beauty of the sky and appreciate being able to share it with the one you love.

3.    Sit quietly by yourself. It doesn't really matter where or when. Just let your feelings bubble up and then experience the thoughts flowing out of your mind. Clearing your head and heart will give you extra energy to get through the rest of the day.

4.    Write a thank you note to your mate. When was the last time you thanked your partner for just being who he or she is and being with you? Doing this in writing will give your partner something to cherish for the rest of his or her life.

5.    Take out your oldest family photo album and look through it. The experience will fill you with fond memories and perhaps make you a bit wistful for days gone by.

6.    Play with a child. Most kids have short attention spans; ten minutes of quality time from a loving adult can make their day. It will also help you stay in touch with the child inside of you.

7.    Visualize or imagine a positive outcome for any issue. Medical doctors recommend visualization to patients with chronic and potentially fatal illnesses. If it can help them, it can do the same for you. 

8.    Go to bed with the one you love ten minutes earlier than usual. Then spend that time just holding each other. Let the feeling of warmth from your mate move through you.

9.    Hang out by some water. Studies show that hospital patients who can see a natural body of water from their beds get better at a 30 percent faster rate. If you're not near the coast or a lake, try taking a bath. Doing so is also healing.

10.  Get your body moving. Shake, twist, and jump around. Let yourself feel the joy of moving to your favorite music, or just the sounds in your head. Run, walk, and bike to your hearts content. You will live longer and love it more.

Sadly, many people measure happiness by how long the experience lasts. The truth is that a few minutes of joy here and there can make a big difference in what you get out of life.

Source:  http://www.psychologytoday.com/print/40925

5 ways your TV is slowly killing you

You’ve accepted the idea that TV makes you dumber. You know there are lots of more edifying things you could be doing with your time than cheering on the contestants on "Survivor."

And unless you’re working out to an exercise video, you know those hours sprawled out in front of the screen are going to make you fatter — not to mention the impact of all that junk food you’ve been tempted to scarf down during the commercial breaks.

But you’ll be surprised to learn the host of other bad things TV can do to you.

1. TV makes you deader.  

TV-viewing is a pretty deadly pastime, research suggests. No matter how much time you spend in the gym, every hour you spend in front of the TV increases your risk of dying from heart disease, according to a recent report in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. Australian researchers studied 8,800 adult men and women for an average of six years and found that every hour spent in front of the TV translated into an 11 percent increase in the risk of death from any cause, a 9 percent increase in the risk of death from cancer and an 18 percent increase in the risk of death from cardiovascular disease. So, compared to people who watched less than two hours of TV a day, those who watched four or more hours a day had a 46 percent higher risk of death from any cause and an 80 percent higher risk of death due to cardiovascular disease. And that was true even among people who didn’t smoke, were thin, ate healthy diets and had low blood pressure and cholesterol.

2. TV makes you drunker.  

TV may make you drink more. When it comes to drinking, we’re apparently very susceptible to what we see on TV, according to a report published in Alcohol and Alcoholism. To discover whether what we view actually affects drinking habits, researchers rounded up 80 male university students between the ages of 18 and 29 and plunked them down in a bar-like setting where the students were allowed to watch movies and commercials on TV. The researchers found that men who watched films and commercials in which alcohol was prominently featured immediately reached for a glass of beer or wine and drank an average of 1.5 glasses more than those who watched films and commercials in which alcohol played a less prominent role.

3. TV can make your kid pregnant.  

Teens who watched a lot of TV that included sexual content were twice as likely to get pregnant, according to a study published in Pediatrics. Once a year for three years, Rand Corporation researchers surveyed 1,461 youngsters — ages 12 to 17 at the beginning of the study — about TV-viewing habits and sexual behavior. Boys were asked if they had ever gotten a girl pregnant and girls were asked if they had ever been pregnant. To get a handle on how much sexually charged TV kids were watching, the researchers asked teens if and how often they viewed 23 specific programs.

 

Video: Watching TV leads to heart disease, docs say Another study showed that kids who watch two or more hours of TV a day start having sex earlier, according to a report in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. Researchers followed 4,808 students for a year. The kids — all ages 15 or younger — had never had sex at the beginning of the study. Among kids with parents who disapproved of teen sex, those who watched two or more hours of TV per day were 72 percent more likely to start having sex by the end of the study. The researchers said they weren’t surprised to find no TV effect among kids with parents who didn’t care about teen sex since those kids were at high risk of early sex anyway.

4. TV weakens your bones.  

Hours spent watching TV can set a kid up for later problems with brittle bones, according to a study published in the Journal of Pediatrics. Until we hit 25 or so, we accumulate bone in a kind of savings account. The more bone we build when we’re younger, the less likely we are to develop the brittle-bone disease osteoporosis.

To see whether TV watching might impact kids’ bone growth, researchers followed 214 3-year-olds for four years. The children’s height and weight were checked every four months, along with their activity levels. At each checkup, parents were asked about their kids’ TV-viewing habits. The more TV kids watched, the less bone they grew, regardless of how active they were at other times.

5. TV makes you less engaging.
 

A recent study found that when the TV is on — even if it’s just in the background — parents interact less with their kids. To learn more about TV’s effects, researchers brought 51 infants and toddlers, each accompanied by a parent, to a university child study center, according to the report published Child Development. Parents and kids were observed for half an hour in a playroom without a TV and then for a half hour with the TV tuned to an adult program such as "Jeopardy!" When the TV was on, parents spent about 20 percent less time talking to their children. And when parents did pay attention to their kids, the quality of the interactions was lower: With a program on in the background, parents were less active, attentive and responsive to their youngsters.

Source:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35646508/ns/health-behavior/#.UFVj7KP90hs

Benefits Of Jazz

Benefits of Jazz

Jazz and other forms of instrumental music highly enjoyable and are listened by people all over the world. Observations and some studies display that music is very beneficial to listeners, other than only being enjoyable. Further down are major benefits of jazz.

1. Healing effects

Jazz normally involves music that is composed with the assistance of several instruments like piano, violin, harmonica, guitar and flute among many other instruments. It ought to be noted that music therapy is quite beneficial to patients, particularly those in recovery. In fact, even in the past, music was utilized for enhancing healing.

2. Benefits heart patients

Among the many jazz benefits on our general health is that it assists people with heart problems as well. A study performed on heart patients found that the participants had reduced blood pressure following listening to jazz music. It also assists in normalizing the heartbeat in such patients.

3. Reduces migraines

Individuals suffering from headaches and migraines have been treated with certain kinds of jazz. Aside from preventing migraines, jazz music also lessens the period of a migraine attack. Jazz music is very calming and soothing to the brain.

4. Flexibility

Dancing to some jazz music increases flexibility considerably. Most jazz dancing classes usually start with a short warm-up exercise that comprises of various stretching workouts. The jazz dances usually require dancers to perform moves that require stretching and bending. Dancers therefore enhance their flexibility naturally through simply dancing.

5. Endurance

Engaging in jazz dances regularly enhances endurance significantly. Endurance refers to the capability of muscles to place more effort for long hours without fatigue. In addition, jazz dancing increases stamina and it is also more enjoyable.

Even though jazz music and dance offers various benefits, it is also regarded as boring by many people. Most of these people opt for other kinds of music like techno, which has a faster tempo.

Source:  http://benefitof.net/benefits-of-jazz/

Comedy films 'good for the heart' (BBC)

Watching comedy films is good for the heart because it boosts the flow of blood, a study says.

 

A team from the University of Maryland in the US asked 20 healthy young adults to watch 15 to 30 minutes of sad and humorous films 48 hours apart.

While watching films such as There's Something About Mary, blood flow rose in all but one of participants.

Researchers said the effect was equivalent to starting a course of heart treatment drugs called statins.

But movies like Saving Private Ryan with its war scenes had the opposite effect, the Heart journal reported.

The team said it seemed likely that the act of laughing had the effect of widening the arteries - mental stress is known to narrow them.

Lead researcher Dr Michael Miller said that, even though more research was needed to confirm the findings, they would be of interest to cinema-goers.

"The overall difference in blood flow between the mental stress and laughter phases exceeded 50%."

And he added: "The extent of the impact of watching a sad film was of the same magnitude as remembering episodes of anger and doing mental arithmetic, while the impact of watching a funny film was equivalent to a bout of aerobic exercise or starting on statin treatment."

During the study, participants were asked to abstain from drinking alcohol, using vitamins or herbs, or taking aerobic exercise the evening before the experiment, as all these can affect blood flow.

                            

                                        Watching comedy increased the flow of blood to the heart
Artery

In all, 160 measurements of brachial artery blood flow were taken before and one minute after phases of laughter or sadness. The brachial artery runs from the shoulder to the elbow, and is a good indicator of blood flow around the body.

Brachial artery blood flow was reduced in 14 of the 20 participants after watching film clips that caused distress, but increased in 19 of the 20 participants after watching those that elicited laughter.

Dr Charmaine Griffiths, of the British Heart Foundation, said: "It is well known that changes in emotion can be reflected in changes in the heart and circulation.

"Scientists are becoming increasingly interested in the possibility that a good giggle has positive effects on heart health.

"Whether sharing a joke with friends or watching a comedy, a good laugh is likely to be good for your heart.

"However, we would like to reassure people that watching sad films won't have any long term detrimental effects on the heart or circulation." 

 

 "The impact of watching a funny film was equivalent to a bout of aerobic exercise or starting on statin treatment"

Dr Michael Miller, lead researcher

Source:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4616902.stm