Muriella's Corner

Creating mindsets for a Better World

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Night owl? Early Riser?


Source: Zen Habits

"Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise” - Ben Franklin, famously

“Put no trust in the benefits to accrue from early rising, as set forth by the infatuated Franklin …” - Mark Twain


Ten Habits upon Rising

  1. Greet the day. I love being  able to get up, and greet a wonderful new day. I suggest creating a morning ritual that includes saying thanks for your blessings. I’m inspired by the Dalai Lama, who said, ” Everyday, think as you wake up, ‘today I am fortunate to have woken up, I am alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others, I am going to benefit others as much as I can.’ “
  2. Amazing start. I used to start my day by jumping out of bed, late as usual, and rushing to get myself and the kids ready, and rushing to drop them to school and come in to work late. I would walk into work, looking rumpled and barely awake, grumpy and behind everyone else. Not a great start to your day. Now, I have a renewing morning ritual, I’ve gotten so much done before 8 a.m., my kids are early and so am I, and by the time everyone else gets in to work, I’ve already gotten a head start. There is no better way to start off your day than to wake early, in my experience.
  3. Quietude. No kids yelling, no babies crying, no soccer balls, no cars, no television noise. The early morning hours are so peaceful, so quiet. It’s my favorite time of day. I truly enjoy that time of peace, that time to myself, when I can think, when I can read, when I can breathe.
  4. Sunrise. People who wake late miss one of the greatest feats of nature, repeated in full stereovision each and every day — the rise of the sun. I love how the day slowly gets brighter, when the midnight blue turns to lighter blue, when the brilliant colors start to seep into the sky, when nature is painted in incredible colors. I like doing my early morning run during this time, and I look up at the sky as I run and say to the world, “What a glorious day!” Really. I really do that. Corny, I know.
  5. Breakfast. Rise early and you actually have time for breakfast. I’m told it’s one of the most important meals of the day. Without breakfast, your body is running on fumes until you are so hungry at lunchtime that you eat whatever unhealthy thing you can find. The fattier and sugarier, the betterier. But eat breakfast, and you are sated until later. Plus, eating breakfast while reading my book and drinking my coffee in the quiet of the morning is eminently more enjoyable than scarfing something down on the way to work, or at your desk.
  6. Exercise. There are other times to exercise besides the early morning, of course, but I’ve found that while exercising right after work is also very enjoyable, it’s also liable to be canceled because of other things that come up. Morning exercise is virtually never canceled.
  7. Productivity. Mornings, for me at least, are the most productive time of day. I like to do some writing in the morning, when there are no distractions, before I check my email or blog stats. I get so much more done by starting on my work in the morning. Then, when evening rolls around, I have no work that I need to do, and I can spend it with family.
  8. Goal time. Got goals? Well, you should. And there’s no better time to review them and plan for them and do your goal tasks than first thing. You should have one goal that you want to accomplish this week. And every morning, you should decide what one thing you can do today to move yourself further towards that goal. And then, if possible, do that first thing in the morning.
  9. Commute. No one likes rush-hour traffic, except for Big Oil. Commute early, and the traffic is much lighter, and you get to work faster, and thus save yourself more time. Or better yet, commute by bike. (Or even better yet, work from home.)
  10. Appointments. It’s much easier to make those early appointments on time if you get up early. Showing up late for those appointments is a bad signal to the person you’re meeting. Showing up early will impress them. Plus, you get time to prepare.

How to Become an Early Riser

  • Don’t make drastic changes. Start slowly, by waking just 15-30 minutes earlier than usual. Get used to this for a few days. Then cut back another 15 minutes. Do this gradually until you get to your goal time.
  • Allow yourself to sleep earlier. You might be used to staying up late, perhaps watching TV or surfing the Internet. But if you continue this habit, while trying to get up earlier, sooner or later one is going to give. And if it is the early rising that gives, then you will crash and sleep late and have to start over. I suggest going to bed earlier, even if you don’t think you’ll sleep, and read while in bed. If you’re really tired, you just might fall asleep much sooner than you think.
  • Put your alarm clock far from you bed. If it’s right next to your bed, you’ll shut it off or hit snooze. Never hit snooze. If it’s far from your bed, you have to get up out of bed to shut it off. By then, you’re up. Now you just have to stay up.
  • Go out of the bedroom as soon as you shut off the alarm. Don’t allow yourself to rationalize going back to bed. Just force yourself to go out of the room. My habit is to stumble into the bathroom and go pee. By the time I’ve done that, and flushed the toilet and washed my hands and looked at my ugly mug in the mirror, I’m awake enough to face the day.
  • Do not rationalize. If you allow your brain to talk you out of getting up early, you’ll never do it. Don’t make getting back in bed an option.
  • Have a good reason. Set something to do early in the morning that’s important. This reason will motivate you to get up. I like to write in the morning, so that’s my reason. Also, when I’m done with that, I like to read all of your comments!
  • Make waking up early a reward. Yes, it might seem at first that you’re forcing yourself to do something hard, but if you make it pleasurable, soon you will look forward to waking up early. A good reward is to make a hot cup of coffee or tea and read a book. Other rewards might be a tasty treat for breakfast (smoothies! yum!) or watching the sunrise, or meditating. Find something that’s pleasurable for you, and allow yourself to do it as part of your morning routine.
  • Take advantage of all that extra time. Don’t wake up an hour or two early just to read your blogs, unless that’s a major goal of yours. Don’t wake up early and waste that extra time. Get a jump start on your day! I like to use that time to get a head start on preparing my kids’ lunches, on planning for the rest of the day (when I set my MITs), on exercising or meditating, and on reading. By the time 6:30 rolls around, I’ve done more than many people do the entire day.







Muriella's Corner Newsletter
July 2007/15

Happy Father's Day

Quotes to remember Dad by...

For those of us who cannot articulate loving phrases or sentences or sentiments to our Dads, here are some below among which you might find one that resonates with your feelings…

For those of us who wish we had said something loving or kind to our Dad before he got sick, disabled, transitioned…you might find a quote or two to help you re-live your time with him, or to help you write him a letter and get the feelings out…

For those of us who never knew that Dads existed because Moms took their place - here are some quotes below among which you might find some relevant ones for those MomDads. Enjoy! 
 
He didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it. ~Clarence Budington Kelland
 
A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty. ~Author Unknown
 
Father! - to God himself we cannot give a holier name. ~William Wordsworth
 
Love and fear. Everything the father of a family says must inspire one or the other. ~Joseph Joubert
 
One father is more than a hundred Schoolemasters. ~George Herbert, Outlandish Proverbs, 1640
 
Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him father! ~Lydia M. Child, Philothea: A Romance, 1836
 
Henry James once defined life as that predicament which precedes death, and certainly nobody owes you a debt of honor or gratitude for getting him into that predicament. But a child does owe his father a debt, if Dad, having gotten him into this peck of trouble, takes off his coat and buckles down to the job of showing his son how best to crash through it. ~Clarence Budington Kelland
 
A father is always making his baby into a little woman. And when she is a woman he turns her back again. ~Enid Bagnold Sometimes the poorest man leaves his children the richest inheritance. ~Ruth E. Renkel
 
A father carries pictures where his money used to be. ~Author Unknown
 
The father who would taste the essence of his fatherhood must turn back from the plane of his experience, take with him the fruits of his journey and begin again beside his child, marching step by step over the same old road. ~Angelo Patri
 
My father, when he went, made my childhood a gift of a half a century. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
 
It is much easier to become a father than to be one. ~Kent Nerburn, Letters to My Son: Reflections on Becoming a Man, 1994
 
The words that a father speaks to his children in the privacy of home are not heard by the world, but, as in whispering-galleries, they are clearly heard at the end and by posterity. ~Jean Paul Richter
 
Any man can be a father. It takes someone special to be a dad. ~Author Unknown
 
The greatest gift I ever had Came from God; I call him Dad! ~Author Unknown
 
I love my father as the stars - he's a bright shining example and a happy twinkling in my heart. ~Adabella Radici

Two little girls, on their way home from Sunday school, were solemnly discussing the lesson. "Do you believe there is a devil?" asked one. "No," said the other promptly. "It's like Santa Claus: it's your father." ~Ladies' Home Journal, quoted in 2,715 One-Line Quotations for Speakers, Writers & Raconteurs by Edward F. Murphy
 
Dad, your guiding hand on my shoulder will remain with me forever. ~Author Unknown
 
Sherman made the terrible discovery that men make about their fathers sooner or later... that the man before him was not an aging father but a boy, a boy much like himself, a boy who grew up and had a child of his own and, as best he could, out of a sense of duty and, perhaps love, adopted a role called Being a Father so that his child would have something mythical and infinitely important: a Protector, who would keep a lid on all the chaotic and catastrophic possibilities of life. ~Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities
 
Old as she was, she still missed her daddy sometimes. ~Gloria Naylor
 
Sons are for fathers the twice-told tale. ~Victoria Secunda, Women and Their Fathers, 1992
 
Why are men reluctant to become fathers? They aren't through being children. ~Cindy Garner
 
Fathers represent another way of looking at life - the possibility of an alternative dialogue. ~Louise J. Kaplan, Oneness and Separateness: From Infant to Individual, 1978
 
There's something like a line of gold thread running through a man's words when he talks to his daughter, and gradually over the years it gets to be long enough for you to pick up in your hands and weave into a cloth that feels like love itself. ~John Gregory Brown, Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery, 1994
 
There are three stages of a man's life: He believes in Santa Claus, he doesn't believe in Santa Claus, he is Santa Claus. ~Author Unknown
 
Fatherhood is pretending the present you love most is soap-on-a-rope. ~Bill Cosby
 
When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years. ~Mark Twain, "Old Times on the Mississippi" Atlantic Monthly, 1874
 
quotes.com 

The Fat-Obesity Conundrum

Source: Dr Briffa
 
Much has been written about how the impact of ‘excess’ weight on health seems to have been, well, overstated in both men and women. More evidence to this effect emerged this week on the publication of a study of nearly 7000 American men with an average age of 58.
 
The study, conducted in California and published in the American Journal of Medicine, assessed the health of men who had been referred for the investigation of possible heart disease. The study participants were assessed through, amongst other things, a weigh-in and fitness testing, after which they were followed for an average of 7½ years. Over this period, about a quarter of the men died.
 
The researchers then looked at the risk of death between different ‘bandings’ of weight. Compared to individuals in the ‘healthy’ weight category (body mass index 18.5-24.9), individuals in the ‘obese’ category (BMI 30 or more) were 22 per cent less likely to die over time of follow-up.
 

And this reduction in risk was found to be statistically significant. It is possible that individuals who are obese are, compared to slimmer individuals, more likely to be unfit and have other risk factors for heart disease such as diabetes. When the researchers accounted for such factors (in an effort to make weight the only differentiating factor between the groups) the obese men were found to be at a 35 per cent reduced risk of death compared to their considerably slimmer counterparts.
 
The study authors are keen to point out that the results of this study are not a mandate for the encouragement of obesity. They say that this group consisted of older men with symptoms of heart disease, and therefore do not know whether the results are applicable to the population at large. I suppose that’s fair enough, but whichever way you look at this most recent research, it seems yet again to suggest that the body mass index is pretty hopeless as a marker for health.
 
 
References: 1. McAuley P, et al. Body mass, fitness and survival in veteran patients: another obesity paradox? The American Journal of Medicine. 2007 120(6):518-524



July 2007/12

Inflammation - Your "Itis" Revealed

Inflammation is the body's basic response to injury. Almost like triggers during the fight or flight syndrome, when we are physically hurt, the body uses inflammation to trigger a sequence of complicated, interrelated events work to defend the body, ultimately bringing plasma proteins and phagocytes (white blood cells that engulf and consume foreign material and debris) to the injured area for the purpose of initiating tissue repair.In some diseases, the inflammatory process can be triggered even when there are no foreign invaders.  For Books on Inflammation, Click Here
In autoimmune diseases, the body's normally protective immune system damages its own tissues, as it erroneously recognizes self as foreign, and normal as abnormal. Here's where, and in what form, untreated or chronic inflammation can strike:



BRAIN Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis
EYES conjunctivitis
SINUSES sinusitis
FACE acne
GUMS periodontal disease
LUNGS asthma, bronchitis
COLON colitis
INTESTINE Crohn's disease
VAGINA vaginitis
NOSE rhinitis
THROAT Laryngitis Acid Reflux
HEART, ARTERIES, VEINS vasculitis, atherosclerosis, heart disease
JOINTS arthritis
PANCREAS diabetes
STOMACH gastritis
KIDNEYS lupus
HIP bursitis
SKIN psoriasis
TENDONS tendonitis

Click Here to Read More



 

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