Karla Walter

The festive season will soon be upon us. It can be one of excitement and fun or tension and expectation. You may be deeply connected to your religious beliefs at this time, or feel that you are part of something greater than yourself or simply time to have a break and a holiday. It is a time for many to travel, visit with family, friends, and enjoy the celebration and connection. One area that I love during the festive season is decorating my home. It is always done on the first day of December and I take time to look at the objects that I place around the house to remember the person who gave me the item or where I was when I bought it. It brings me great joy and I smile all day with such fond memories. As an expat and also work that I have done in that past, there have been times when I found myself on my own at this time of the year. That may be true of many people. When I was on my own, I would always reflect on what the year had been like, where I had been, who I had met and there was a feeling of being connected to others.

There has been excellent research done over many decades on how people feel with acts of kindness. The Christian festive season and other religious festivals have times when it is important to be in touch with those less fortunate than yourself or to open the doors of your home and invite others to share meals with you and your family. Did you know that we have chemical changes in the body when we are pleasant, happy, and joyful, plus, when we have “acts of kindness” to others? This can and has been measured medically and scientifically. One study by Emroy University in UK, Ron Breazeale PhD in Psychology Today.

What are these chemical changes and hormones and what do they do?

There are four primary chemicals in the brain that affect happiness: dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins. By designing gamified experiences that activate these chemicals, you can increase happiness and loyalty. According to Dr. David R. Hamilton, acts of kindness create emotional warmth, which releases a hormone known as oxytocin. Oxytocin causes the release of a chemical called nitric oxide, which dilates the blood vessels. This reduces blood pressure and, therefore, oxytocin is known as a “cardioprotective” hormone.

Pain – kindness releases endorphins in the brain.
Stress – kind people age slower and have lower stress that the average person.
Anxiety and depression – kindness improves mood, depression and anxiety.
Kindness stimulates the production of serotonin which heals wounds, calms and increases happiness.

If we are all connected, which I believe we are, all 7.7 billion of us on this beautiful planet we call earth, our home, how can we help each other. One way is through acts of kindness and acts of kindness come in many and varied ways. It can be overwhelming to think about it, however, it may start with smiling at someone a total stranger, to helping someone with a grocery bag, helping someone with a pram, or listening to someone and not offering any advice. Giving them your full attention. I’m sure most people reading this article are part of wonderful acts of kindness, from smiling at someone, or giving an older person a seat on the train or bus, but there has to be more than that.

A few days ago, I was in a store and a young child about 4 years old was very excited about the purchase her mother and her were making. The self-checkout was not working, and the mother told the girl they would have to go to the counter. The women behind the counter spoke with the mother, then made eye contact and smiled at the child. They engaged in conversation about the purchase, all the while, the child was asking can she make it happen so she could take the item home. When the women behind the counter said, “all done, you can take it home”, the child was very excited. As they started to walk away, the child stopped, turned kissed her hand and then  blew the lady a kiss of thank you. The child was not prompted, not encouraged, just a smile and a kiss to say thank you from a child who knew that meant something special. For those of us watching it was a moment, where everyone was smiling and there was definitely a reaction in our bodies, of delight and also calmness, that everything for that moment was OK. This got me thinking. If the scientist is right and we in fact change (which we do) on a chemical level with an increase of serotonin and dopamine, we then have the potential to tap into that at any time.

What might happen if we pursued more of this in our daily lives? There have been hundreds of books, articles and scientific papers on these changes in the body. I am now asking who, through this festive season, wants to be a part of simple acts of kindness. Around the world there are organisations that promote these acts.

One item I have in my home which I just love is an advent calendar. I have been known to email many people around the world with advent calendars leading up to Christmas Day. This year something different. Start with the 1st December and for 25 days what will your acts of kindness be and the gift you give yourself and others in return. Each advent calendar has an opening for each day from the 1st to the 25th December. At the end of each day write down what you saw was an act of kindness and also what your act of kindness was. Place it into the pocket or space provided in your advent calendar. The most important piece here is “not” what you did, but what you “observed”, was an act of kindness. That way it is not about your ego to say, “look at me”, but from a genuine giving from yourself to another. When we observe someone else’s act of kindness it stimulates us in a way that we want to be apart of that feeling. When we see others and their acts of kindness it starts the change chemically in us and then we may have a clearer picture of doing something for someone else. At the end of the 25 days, you may like to reflect on how you feel and what took place through the weeks. You may want to leave them there for next year and instead of writing out new ones, take them out for each day and perform them again.

The most profound thing here is most acts of kindness don’t cost anything or very little.

It is lovely to have a stranger pay for your coffee at a coffee shop for no other reason than they wanted to, and you may not ever see them again. I have had my toll paid by the car in front of me when I was driving on a freeway and never knew who it was. It certainly made me feel great and then of course I paid it forward. It was not about me, nor should it be. It is about “US”. Those who live on this most beautiful blue planet. Check into my website mid-November to read the blog if you would like to be part of the the advent calendar this year for acts of kindness over the festive season.

Health and Happiness
Karla Walter

http://www.5seasonsliving.com

Recently I was on the receiving end of an accident, (not car), where my intercostal muscles have been severely strained and bruised. I have been reading and practicing breathing techniques for many years and thought how pertinent to write on the subject now. We take our first breath when we are born and from that moment on, it is totally automatic. During our life, accidents, ailments, illnesses, anxiety, sadness, elated emotions can change that, however let’s talk in general first. We never truly have to think about our breathing. We wake each day and the breathing continues but more importantly it continues in our sleep state. It’s sad to think that the first thought when one wakes up is what is happening on their phone, not that their diaphragm is working. The rhythm of our breathing at night changes, depending on our sleeping position, back, front, side or nasal obstruction which may cause snoring or other breathing concerns, such as sleep apnea.

We wake each day and we don’t think about it. Our breathing will change during the day depending on our activity. Exercise potentially increases our breathing pattern, along with anxiety, shock, anger, laughing, fear, sadness, delight to name but a few changes in breathing habits. However, we rarely think about how it changes, when in that state or how and when does it change back to its normal rhythms. The majority of people don’t think about the action of breathing until something happens. So let's go over what the body is doing for each inhalation and exhalation. When you breathe in, or inhale, your diaphragm contracts and moves downward. This increases the space in your chest cavity, and your lungs expand into it. The muscles between your ribs also help enlarge the chest cavity. They contract to pull your rib cage both upward and outward when you inhale. As your lungs expand, air is sucked in through your nose or mouth. The air travels down your windpipe and into your lungs. After passing through your bronchial tubes, the air travels to the alveoli, or air sacs.

The lungs bring oxygen into the body when breathing in and send carbon dioxide out of the body when breathing out. Carbon dioxide is a waste gas produced by the cells of the body. The process of breathing in is called inhalation. The process of breathing out is called exhalation. During this process, the chest wall expands out and away from the lungs. … Upon exhalation, the lungs recoil to force the air out of the lungs. The intercostal muscles relax, returning the chest wall to its original position. During exhalation, the diaphragm also relaxes, moving higher into the thoracic cavity. There are many names for the process of breathing or what it may be in this invisible form from different cultures around the world. The breath may be referred to as Prana in Sanskrit text, Ruah from the Hebrew and Pneuma from Greek which means breath or spirit in their translation. Chinese call the energy of life itself, Qi or Ki. The very breath of life that flows through everyone. In this extremely busy manmade life of ours people are getting even more shallow with their breathing.

Over time we have moved away from full deep breath, to only the top third of the lungs get filled and now I see more and more people breathing even less, just short gasps. People are holding their breath when they read their phone or play a video game. When we hold our breath or do not fill the body with oxygen it starts to send the body into a shock state. All modern day phenomena such as computers, emails, phones, driving, moving through the day to “the next thing” always in a hurry. The body is always in flight or fight mode which in turn is putting our sympathetic nervous system on high alert. When we are in this state, the body releases cortisol and adrenaline which causes blood sugar and fats to move into our flight or fight mode. At the same time these hormones raise our heart rate and blood pressure, decrease our immune system and causes the energy that we need for digestion, reproduction and elimination to be moved away from those functions.

All of these process of computers, emails, phones, driving, moving through the day to “the next thing” always in a hurry. The body is always in flight or fight mode which in turn is always putting our sympathetic nervous system on high alert. When we are in this state, the body releases cortisol and adrenaline which causes blood sugar and fats to move into our flight or fight mode. At the same time these hormones raise our heart rate and blood pressure, decrease our immune system and causes the energy that we need for digestion, reproduction and elimination to be moved away from those functions. Not only are people having neck problems because they protrude their head towards the computer screen, the shoulders are rounded and the lungs cannot expand.

In scientific research now being conducted and explained by Technologist Julian Burschka there is breakthrough science of breath analysis. This is the screening of volatile organic compounds found in your exhaled breath. We tend to assume that we breath out carbon dioxide. However we breath out a lot more than that. This research is looking at the potential of what we breath out that may be either causing an illness or setting us up for an illness. It’s centred on screening the volatile organic compounds in exhaled breath. There is a very long way to go, however once again, if we listen to the body and pay attention it is always sending us messages. What can be done to improve our breathing patterns? There are endless videos demonstrating, techniques to help everyone come back to the simplest of action, taking a breath and exhaling out what we don’t need.

In the passage of The Anapanasati Sutra this beautiful writing is about the path to mindfulness and how right in front of us, “at the tip of our nose”, breathing. The chapter is a wonderful explanation of awareness, mindfulness and of course breathing. In the many variations of yogic breathing there is, Nadi Shodhana or Alternate Nostril Breathing, Sama Vritti or Equal Breathing, Abdominal Breathing Technique, there are guided breathing meditations where you breath into each part of the body and relax each part. One of the breathing techniques that I like is the 4-7-8. This I first saw in a TEDx talk by Max Strom and he had the entire crowd breathing in this rhythm. To use the 4-7-8 technique, focus on the following breathing pattern: empty the lungs of air. Breathe in quietly through the nose for 4 seconds. Hold the breath for a count of 7 seconds.

What is the message here for everyone? Breathing techniques are to calm us down, bring our overall body to a calm and quiet place to work from to help heal our body when angry, upset, anxious or frightened for example.

When you breath with intention during a mediation and focus on your breath, you cannot have a thought. That is why breathing techniques for meditation have always been so important. Anyone guiding you through a meditation, will always say, “if your mind wanders come back to your breath.” This is something that one needs to practice, not only in mediation but during many times of the day. Your body, mind and spirit will be happy. The following quote from C. Joybell C. gives us all something to think about as we are all connected through breathing.

“I am never alone wherever I am. The air itself supplies me with a century of love. When I breathe in, I am breathing in the laughter, tears, victories, passions, thoughts, memories, existence, joys, moments, and the hues of the sunlight on many tones of skin; I am breathing in the same air that was exhaled by many before me. The air that bore them life. And so how can I ever say that I am alone?” C. JoyBell C.

Health and Happiness
Karla Walter
www.5seasonsliving.com

How do we know our elderly folk are taking care of themselves nutritionally? This can be a sensitive subject to discuss with parents and grandparents alike if not approached with care. As time goes by, we seem to lose our appetite and skip the odd meal. Over time, this can escalate into several skipped meals and the nutrition level goes down as a result, particularly if living alone.

In cultures where we see many generations living under the one roof, mealtimes are shared by all. There may be a watchful eye observing how much people are eating. As expats, parents and grandparents are only seen during holidays and visits home or abroad. As lifestyles change for raging people, I am sure you will have noticed that when older folk move in with family members or into care facilities, they generally put on weight and this is because the diet of many of our older folk is not very nutritious and they tend to eat irregularly.

When we ask ageing parents or grandparents “Are you eating?”, “can I get you something?”, “Do you need any shopping?” the majority will say, “Oh don’t bother, I’m fine. There is plenty of food in the cupboard.”  How many of us go to the cupboard to check? We don’t normally because we do not want to get involved in an argument or make a person feel that they are not in control. The fact of the matter may be that there are not foods in the cupboard for good nutrition. A packet of cracker biscuits, canned soups and a box of sugar cereal with a few potatoes or canned corn is not what one would call nutritious. It is a very delicate issue when we start to enquire into people’s eating habits. Having seen what a lot of young people and parents eat, the aged concern me greatly. They never want to be a bother and will do anything to remove the thought of being a burden to someone. They will also insist that all is well, often for fear of being moved into care facilities.

Why is it the older folk have such an independent attitude? Well, we must not forget many of them grew up through vary hard economic times and this gave them a sense of values based on overcoming hardship. On the other hand, their offspring, the “baby boomers”, have a very different attitude to life. Moving now more in Gen X, their parents, the baby bombers, are now ageing and a different type of independence is now visible. They love the thought that someone comes to clean the house each week and the thought that someone would come and cook their meals is what many of them work for. However, to some elderly people, this creates the idea of not coping and not being of use in the family and society. Another question that we may need to ask ourselves is how forceful must we be. No-one wants to alienate themselves from parents and grandparents, but genuine concern and the need to be aware is very important.

Let me tell you a little of my story.

My father, who had lived on his own since he was 66 years of age, was a man who ate extremely well. He taught me about eating properly. Interestingly, the biggest meal of his day was breakfast followed by smaller meals throughout the day. These were generally a few snacks, often snacks of fruit. However, he always ate 5 – 7 vegetables every day along with meat or fish and at the age of 93, when he passed away, never took any medication. However, as Dad got older, my brother and I had to make the difficult decision to plan for him to be assessed for cared facilities. The wonderful doctor who came out to see him truly was wearing wings, a real angel. I have never met a man so passionate for the elderly in all my life. My brother and I, plus respective partners, had made arrangements years before for cleaners to come to the house each week and this grew into someone shopping for him once a week as his driving was decreasing. We worked around this by asking his doctor to tell him that this needed to be done. (Funny how everything sounds fine from the doctor but not the family). He agreed and we were all very happy. My father was still cooking his own meals. Then we increased the shopping days, as my father liked everything fresh, but we noticed that his weight was decreasing even though he told us he was cooking every day. Not realising the subtleties of dementia for some people, I now feel my father was forgetting whether or not he had eaten.

After he was made comfortable in the aged facility, his weight increased and he looked wonderful. My family members and I have talked about the signs that we may have missed earlier to assist with his nutrition. We tell our children every day to eat their vegetables and fruit and we know how important it is for ourselves not to skip meals, so let’s keep an eye on our elderly folk and make sure that they are not going without.

There is an endless list of diets and an endless list of people trying them. We can read about it in magazines, books, online, social media, anywhere people can get a message across. The themes change from weight loss to beautiful skin, thin thighs, long flowing hair, strong nails, improve your eyesight and on and on the list goes. 

There are also the schools of thought plus many books and articles that all you need to do is take supplements, or protein powder, a new pill for this or that. The varying schools of thought range from almost entirely synthetic supplement foods based on daily allowances for various vitamins and other nutrients, verified in a science laboratory, to the increasingly popular whole foods school, based on traditional patterns and verified by hundreds to thousands of years of practice and observation. So many of these schools have valuable information and ideas to share, which leaves the health-conscious consumer navigating and weaving through the claims and counterclaims, theories and facts, to arrive at a dietary system that suits their individual physical needs and personal philosophy.

Holism

The holistic view is not a new one, but has existed since the dawn of mankind’s history, and is still the prevailing philosophy of all societies. However, I see what we call the Western world caught between holistic and laboratory. A fundamental premise is that of personal responsibility for self, based on self-awareness, accepting that as we are the cause of our illness, we are also the author of our own health.  For that, we need information, both theoretical and practical, and it comes from many unexpected sources. Holistic thinking, by its nature, draws on all aspects of the scientific and medical spectrum.

We see how our outlook of the holistic view of the body is different from a more modern medicine approach. The holistic approach may take into consideration both internal and external factors. These may be food, drink, exercise, emotions, stress, home, work, etc., rather than singling out a specific organ or two that are in a state of ill health and perhaps not involving the rest of the organs or external influences. Therefore, holistic approach sees the organic function.  Thanks to the precise and powerful aids of perception developed as a consequence of scientific development, physicists are finding out what the great mystics have always insisted upon, namely that the universe is more than the sum of its parts, and that the reality is a complex web of relationships, where the observer is never totally separate, but involved simply by the act of observation.  All traditional and holistic medicines place a strong emphasis on the largest “system” being in balance, the harmony between body, mind and spirit, as the basis of enduring health.  Perhaps the summary below will help:

Holistic overview

*        Each person is generally aware and has a sense of whether they are in a good state of health or not. The sense that something is wrong is usually correct.

*        Malfunctions of the organism can stem from physical, psychological or spiritual events. Finding the underlying cause and correcting it, allows the body to make certain changes; the immune system takes over from there. The physical and non-physical are equally real.

*        A healthy organism will tend to correct its own minor imbalances, if allowed to do so; medical treatment may often interfere with that self-healing ability.

*        Symptoms are a message from the body about its condition and its function. The same condition may give rise to symptoms of different kinds; conversely, different conditions may cause similar symptoms. Symptoms are the way the body communicates with us. Our problem is, we don’t pay attention or we don’t know how to listen to the symptom.

*        Healing of major diseases may occur because the immune system is sufficiently strong, perhaps supported by a change in diet or by psychological or spiritual renewal.

*        Food can be a direct cause of the proper or improper functioning of the organism.

*        Quality, quantity, stored energy, taste, colour, aroma and texture of food all have psychological and physiological effects on the organism.

*        The organism reacts to and interacts with its natural environment; climate, season, altitude, and weather all affect it.

Our health is a work in progress and one that can bring great joy and excitement as you learn more about who you are and what your body is telling you.

Don’t forget to be kind to yourself and avoid becoming afraid of “bad” foods. There are people who enjoy a strict regime, for others it only results in excessive bingeing. If you are prone to bingeing, loosen up your allowances slightly until you feel comfortable, a little self-discipline notwithstanding! The most important thing of all, when eating your own food, or food cooked for you, is to be thankful, grateful for the efforts of the planet and people to provide you with nourishment. Chew well and you have immediately improved the quality of the food and your health.

Modern medical philosophy or holistic wellbeing

* There are medications that are needed and are responsible for people leading amazing lives.
My question is on medication that is prescribed when it may not be necessary. I’m not anti medication,
I’m against the ease and abuse of it.

Karla Walter Nutritionist www.5seasonsliving.com