Just A Thought · Life

In A Nutshell…

To liberate oneself, the need to search out and study all the dark corners of one’s mind and come to terms with what you find is paramount. The question should always be, ‘do I know who I am?’

Without acceptance, one lives in a continued state of denial.

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Health · Lifestyle

Get Your Health On The Right Track

As they say, there’s no time like the present. Your health should be the most important thing in your life. But sadly, it is often left to last. We put bad lifestyle choices, as well as diet, before the thought of our health. The implications of this as we age are so big. I’m sure we can often admit that it is the fact of not knowing what exactly what is needed to get our health back on track. It goes so far off track, that getting back to the right place just isn’t even in sight. Well, we’re here to show you it isn’t. All it takes is a few minor changes and you can be as healthy as ever. One by one, we’re going to tackle the issues you might have, and get you feeling the best you ever have. Read on to find out more.

Health, Lifestyle, Healthy Living, Ageing, Cholesterol, Exercise

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Things That Can Be Prevented

There are many things that we can prevent that often goes wrong with our health. In fact, so many things that we could go on forever. But we’ll start with the main ones that can cause you hassles. Your eating habits are something that can have massive implications for your health. Eat well, and you’ll hardly have any issues. But we’re living in an era where the easy foods to make, the processed and the ones high in fats and salts, are the ones we’re filling our diets with. Which is understandable.

We work all day, potentially have families to look after, and there just isn’t enough time in the day to cook healthy foods… is there? Well, no, that’s not the case. Yes, a microwavable meal might be easier and quicker to do, but a few of them a week and you’ll be piling on the pounds, and your cholesterol will be going through the roof. Eating a diet that is dominated by fatty foods causes issues such as high cholesterol.

High cholesterol leaves deposits on the arteries within your heart. The more they’re clogged up, less blood is flowing to your heart. Eventually, it will lead to heart attacks or heart disease. To get your diet on the right track, you need to start experimenting with the healthy foods available to you. Fill your diet with lean meats, or tofu replacements etc. if you’re vegan. Plenty of vegetables and fruit and fewer carbs will leave you feeling amazing. You really won’t realise how much a bad diet will affect you as a whole. Not only the physical symptoms, but the grogginess and general feeling of being sluggish will be gone. You’ll have so much more energy, your weight will drop, and you’ll feel so healthy.  

Lifestyle Changes

A bad diet can be part of a bad lifestyle choice, but we all know we’re guilty of a few outside of the diet. One we know a lot of you won’t do is exercise. Exercise is so vital to a well functioning body. It helps to promote healthy bone growth. Increase muscle density, and improve the function of your cardiovascular system. Fitting exercise in around work and family, especially if you’re going to the gym, is just not an option for a lot of people. But how about just a nice 30-minute walk after work to wind down. It isn’t strenuous, and walking in some people’s eyes is actually better for you than running. It puts less stress on the joints, and tones up the muscles more.

A brisk walk opens up the airways, promotes weight loss, and relieves stress. Being out in the open with your own thoughts often clears the mind more than you would realise. Other lifestyle changes we recommend you do is cut down on alcohol consumption. Even if you don’t think you drink a lot, the odd binge each month has more of an effect on your body than if you were having a casual drink each weekend. Over time, it reduces liver function, damages your skin, and increases the risks of stroke. For a lot of people, it is also the reason for weight gain.

Aging Issues

Some things to do with our health we just can’t help. Many things happen to our bodies as we age, whether you like it or not. One of the most obvious is the physical signs of ageing such as fine lines and wrinkles. But they aren’t really going to affect your health, perhaps only your mental health. But things such as hearing and sight loss are something that just can’t be stopped. Once your sight stops deteriorating, you’re best off getting some done about it sooner rather than later. Despite maybe not liking the idea of glasses, the help your eyes so much.

The more your eyes are straining, the quicker they’re going to deteriorate. The retina is one of the main reasons for this, as they can degenerate over time. Your eyes are susceptible to other degenerative diseases, more of which can be seen on this website. Ears are the only other issues we come across. But a lot of people are worried about hearing loss, and the thought of having to wear a hearing aid. Unlike your eyes, your ears won’t get worse through straining. But it will become annoying for you, and the people around you, if you’re struggling to hear anything. All you need to do is visit an audiologist to put you on the right path.

Mental Wellbeing

Your health is often affected by your mental health, and vice-versa. The more clear your mind is, the more focused you will be on your actual health. One of the main issues that affect our mental wellbeing is stress. There are so many things in life that can cause stress, and it is hard to avoid them. Walking, as we’ve said, can reduce your stress levels. But we simply recommend talking to a friend and working through whatever is stressing you out. It could be money, overworking etc. Find solutions to your problem, and soon everything with your health will fall into place.

Lifestyle

Just A Teeny Update

It’s been slow, but it’s been steady. I have whittled my excess kilos down by 5kg – 11pounds through mindfulness.

Trying to practice what I’m preaching about health and wellness is paying off bit by bit.

Healthy living, measuring tape, weightloss

Remember that a lifestyle change need not be drastic. It can be baby steps heading in the right direction. Keep moving…

Gratitude

Well of Warmth – grateful musings

I know that life hasn’t been all sunshine and flowers for everyone – though some lucky folks got to see the Eclipse – not with all the ugly news filtering in from all around the world and when one listens to all these heavy news, it’s easy to get sucked under.

It’s easy to get depressed and to lose sight of the rays of the sun above the dark clouds. It’s easy to forget to remain in a state of thankfulness and to focus on the negativity. As if life is not tough enough already these days we wake up expecting another shoe to fall off, another dam to burst, another bomb explosion, another mad human mowing others down with a car, another Twitter outrage etc that we have almost become mentally conditioned to bad news that overshadows everything.Gratitude, Thankfulness

For me not to get immured in these negative things, I make a conscious effort to appreciate my little blessings wherever I find them. I focus on mindfulness and steer my brain away from the path of distress that it tends to venture to, to the path of wholesomeness. I also find that paying extra attention in showing kindness to others creates an emotional well of warmth – check this post on HuffPost.

As the week winds down, I am grateful for fruitful and grace-filled days. Though what I call my blessings may look insignificant in human eyes’, it’s wonderful to be alive and well. That is a priceless blessing. I hope you’ve got something to be thankful for?

Gratitude is my tonic. Jacqueline

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Gratitude

Barbed Thorns…personal

Image result for Christs thorns

Life’s not all peaches and cream
many have barbed thorns
silent groans
and
priceless tears.

©

Jacqueline

For the day’s that I feel lost and my heart laden with so much burden, Lord, I give thanks. Forgive me for making you too small in my eyes.’

On days that depression hits me out of the blues, I don’t fight it. I welcome it inside. I give it a seat to hear what it’s got to say with a box of tissue in hand and I cry with her when she moves me with her tales.

I make her a strong cup of tea, or coffee, sometimes even some soup and remind her of the many things that are good about her life. I remind her that she should never put her God in a box, but allow He who began the good works in her to continue because He is faithful to the end.

I remind her of her journey and path to emotional freedom and mindfulness. I remind her of her talents and the burgeoning future before her eyes’.

I stoke her hope and remind her to keep her candle shining because the flickers of its light sends out good vibes and helps her to find her way in the dark

I remind her of her resilience, her unwavering positivity, and can-do spirit. I remind her that she’s resourceful, a source of light, the love of many people’s lives and I have her laughing in no time.

I gently show her the door and ask her to roam free. I ask her to go into the light and shine as bright as she can. I tell her that she’s welcome to visit anytime she feels lonely, but I’m quite sure that she knows she’s not alone because I see her light steps as she sprints down the street and her laughter rings in my heart.

This is me talking to one of my other selves.

You are not alone, Quote

If you wish to participate in a gratitude challenge, there are several gratitude/thankful platforms in the blogosphere that you can tune into and get your ithankful going on. I can’t express in words the enormity of Joy and fulfillment that comes from having a heart of gratitude. Please check out Maria’s blog, Colline’s blog and Bernadette’s for thankful/gratitude challenges.

Jacqueline

Gratitude

Take it not for granted…

Gratitude

The inability to be in an automatic state of gratitude is a shortcoming that most of us have because most times our thoughts are reactionary and not proactive. We are always waiting for something to happen so that we can feel thankful for it.

Our focus seems to zoom in far more on the details of all those things that are not going quite the way we want them, failing to give more precedence to those one’s that are working out.

Then again, when all our lines do fall into place, our worries are reduced and a sense of complacency and taking things for granted takes over our thought pattern.

Thankfulness should be as essential as taking in air, as we wake up each morning to the gift of a new day.

Indeed, there are days that I feel run off my feet or overwhelmed by many things that are not going quite as planned, however training my mind has thought me to learn when to ‘press the stop button on the moaning and to tune into grace.’

I am thankful for this continued transformation and the emboldening of my mind power.

Today, I walked into the nearest supermarket around me to grab a couple of things for cooking and I give thanks for the abundance of food that’s available and the fact that I can afford it when some may not be in a position to do so right now.

I always look at the name tag of the sales person who waited on me to call them by their given name and thank them for their assistance.

Many times I enjoy the reward of watching a face transform with a smile from this little gesture of acknowledgment.

In so many ways, my needs are being met and a lot of times in rather unexpected ways, for all these underserved measures, I give thanks.

It’s the start of Lent and a season of deeper reflection. May your reflections bring you enlightenment.

Jacqueline

If you wish to participate in a gratitude challenge, there are several gratitude/thankful platforms in the blogosphere that you can tune into and get your ithankful going on. I can’t express in words the enormity of Joy and fulfillment that comes from having a heart of gratitude. Please check out Maria’s blog, Colline’s blog and Bernadette’s for thankful/gratitude challenges.

Life · Three quote challenge

My recent thoughts…

Cybernetic blonde invited me for the quote challenge and my mind drifted to African proverbs.  Thank you, Brenda 🙂1465108007692[1]

From time immemorial, proverbs have been used by elders in my place to punctuate and convey important messages during a conversation.

When I was younger and my parents or grandparents spoke in proverbs, idioms, and all the wise words, I barely understood, but as I age, I find them worth ruminating over especially when I find myself in a quandary of thoughts.

“Even the best cooking pot will not produce food when no fire is lit underneath.”

“When building a house and the nail breaks, do you stop building or do you change the nail?”

“If you run after two Hares, you will catch neither.”

These three proverbs above reflect the thoughts that have been going through my mind of late. So let me briefly explain them.

The first is an advice to myself that even though I have all the storyline of my second book known to me until I sit down and flesh it out as I should, those ideas won’t miraculously turn into a book.

The second one has to do with some mind distractions that I’ve been having of late. So many loose ends of things to tie up and I’m using them as an excuse to digress from doing what needs to be done. It’s time to drop that tack and get serious.

Lastly, I remind myself to taper off unnecessary things and concentrate. Running after too many things at once will all make me harried and at the end of the day, nothing would have been achieved.

So, back to tapering off, tacking with the right nails and cooking up those stories.

Do you fancy a whirl at quotes? Indulge 🙂

Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha


Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

Out of the silent breath

 

Creative Writing · Fiction · Short Stories

Lost In Thought…Friday Fiction In Five Sentences.

Ted was bored, angry and tired. He hated his job, the drudgery and his boss.

Every morning, he would get all dressed up, knotted in stitches by the strictures of his tie, suit and briefcase, yet he trudged along, a pack of analgesic and pepto-bismol tucked away in his bag. He would have gone through a bit of them before the day was over.

He knew that he couldn’t continue like this in such a dull job. He had told himself this for the past ten years, yet he was too lethargic and scared to sit up and do something.

Lost in thoughts over his quandary, his movements were spare and automated as he walked down his usual route to catch the bus.

He stepped into the pedestrian crossing, just a few seconds too early. He had failed to see the flashing change of the lights and the truck that trundled down at high speed.

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Image credit: Pixabay