ERIE INDIAN MOUNDBUILDERS
Department of Health and Human Services.
TOPIC # 1. BELLY FAT
What causes belly fat in females over 40?
Causes include poor diet, lack of exercise, and short or low-quality sleep. A healthy diet and active lifestyle can help people lose excess belly fat and lower the risk of problems associated with it.
Gaining weight solely in your stomach may be the result of specific lifestyle choices. The two S’s — stress and sugar — play a significant role in the size of your midsection. Certain medical conditions and hormonal changes can contribute to abdominal weight gain
Dangers of Belly Fat
Excess belly fat can be dangerous because it surrounds internal organs and puts you at greater risk for developing several kinds of health problems, including heart disease, diabetes and liver problems.
Treatment For Belly Fat
There are four keys to controlling belly fat: exercise, diet, sleep, and stress management. 1. Exercise: Vigorous exercise trims all your fat, including visceral fat. Get at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise at least 5 days a week.
TOPIC # 2. BREATHING EXERCISES FOR ANXIETY
One of the most powerful tools to help with acute and chronic anxiety is our breath. Breathing is a unique method of anxiety relief because it’s both automatic and self-controlled, meaning even though we breathe unconsciously, the way we breathe can be manipulated or adjusted.
There are numerous breathing exercises for anxiety. This Topic covers four particular exercises, analyzing why they work and providing specific instructions on how to do them.
What is Anxiety?
Anxiety is “a persistent feeling of worry, nervousness or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome, though [it] can occur even in the absence of a stressor or trigger,”
How Prolonged Anxiety Can Affect Your Health
“Both stress and anxiety activate the sympathetic nervous system and cause a release of stress hormones, adrenaline and cortisol, leading to physiologic changes known as the ‘stress response,’” explains Tribal Medicine Man JRP”.
What’s more, stress and anxiety are not typically found by themselves, adds breath work facilitator and fourth-generation sound healer Shanila Sattar. ”They tend to dance with each other. Where stressors in life can lead to anxiety, prolonged anxiety can contribute to stress.
Some signs of prolonged stress and/or anxiety include:
- Aches and pains
- Physical inactivity
- Increased smoking, drinking or drug use
- Social isolation
- Change in appetite
- Inability to focus and concentrate
- Irritability
- Difficulty sleeping
How Breathing Exercises Can Help Calm Your Nervous System
Breathing is closely linked to the nervous system. “Breathing exercises, especially those that emphasize extended, controlled exhalation activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which causes equal and opposite changes to the stress response,” says Dr. Kennedy. “Deep, controlled breathing with extended exhalation stimulates the vagus nerve, causing a fall in heart rate and blood pressure and, when practiced regularly, feelings of calm and relaxation.”
Signs of a relaxed nervous system include:
- Decreased metabolism
- Regular and relaxed heart rate
- Slower breathing
- Lower blood pressure
Breath regulation means bringing awareness to how you’re breathing—the speed, the rate, the depth, through the nose or mouth, and being equally aware of the exhale, Breath awareness pings the body and says, ‘Let’s slow down and find a balance between what we’re feeling, thinking and actually experiencing.’”
Breathing Exercises for Anxiety
- Belly Breathing or Diaphragmatic Breathing
Shallow breathing can limit the diaphragm’s range of motion, which can make you feel short of breath or anxious. Shallow breathing can also push your nervous system into a “fight or flight” response, making you feel tense and anxious.
Here’s how to practice diaphragmatic breathing, according to stress and insomnia
- Place one hand on your stomach and the other hand on your chest. Imagine there’s a balloon in your stomach that you’re filling (by expanding the stomach) and deflating (by gently contracting the abdominal muscles).
- Breathe in through the nose for a slow count of two. You should feel your stomach rise as you inhale. The inhale should be very calm and light. Imagine filling your nose over the slow count of two rather than taking it all in on the first count.
- Exhale even more slowly over a slow count of three. (Pursing your lips may help.) As you do so, you should feel the balloon in your stomach deflating. The hand on your chest should remain mostly still.
“Once someone is comfortable with this exercise, they can increase the time of the inhale and exhale slowly,” says JRP. “I recommend starting with an inhale of two seconds and exhale of three seconds because it’s something everyone can do, even if they have different medical conditions that may make breathing difficult.”
- The Humming Breath
Sattar, whose book Breathe covers 33 breathing techniques, recommends the humming breath for anxiety.
“The humming breath, or bhramari pranayama, is a technique that combines breath and vibration to ease tension in the body and mind,” JRP. “The vibrations within this practice help recalibrate what’s overactive in the body while the breath itself activates the parasympathetic nervous system and tones the vagus nerve. It’s a great practice for any time of day.”
Here’s how to practice the humming breath, according to JRP:
- Take a comfortable seat or stand with a straight spine.
- Breathe in through the nose for at least five seconds.
- With your mouth closed, hum as if you’re saying “hmmm” until you’re out of breath.
- Repeat five to seven times.
- Pursed Lips Breathing
When you feel short of breath, pursed lip breathing helps to bring more oxygen into your lungs and calms you down, allowing you to have more control over your breath.
Here’s how to practice pursed lip breathing, according to the American Lung Association:
- Breathe in through your nose.
- Breathe out with pursed lips as if you were going to blow out a candle. Try to breathe out longer than your inhale.
- Repeat five to 10 times, stopping if you feel light-headed.
- “4-7-8” Breathing
Here’s how to practice 4-7-8 breathing
- Place one hand on your belly and the other on your chest.
- Count to four as you take a deep, slow breath from your belly.
- Hold your breath for seven counts.
- Breathe out for eight counts. Try to get all the air out of your lungs by the time you count to eight.
- Repeat three to seven times or until you feel calm.
- Take a few minutes to sit and feel the sensations in your body and mind before returning to your day.
TOPIC # 3. A FEW BASIC FOODS FOR BETTER HEALTH
Foods to enjoy every day: colorful fruits and vegetables, especially leafy greens; tubers like yams and sweet potatoes; beans of all kinds; nuts and peanuts; rice, flatbreads and other grain foods, especially whole grains.
TOPIC #4. QUANTUM HEALING
What is Quantum Medicine It is a new branch of medicine that provides quick, painless and non-invasive diagnostics for the whole body and treatment of diseases in all areas of medicine, without radiation adverse effects.
The quantum mind or quantum consciousness is a group of hypotheses proposing that classical mechanics alone cannot explain consciousness, positing instead that quantum-mechanical phenomena, such as entanglement and superposition, may play an important part in the brain’s function and could explain critical aspects of …
The “quantum soul” implies consciousness in the brain as well as nonlocal features including:
- Interconnectedness via entanglement among living beings and the universe.
- Contact with cosmic wisdom/Platonic values embedded as quantum information in fundamental space-time geometry.
Those brain functions must be quantum. “Because these brain functions were also correlated to short-term memory performance and conscious awareness, it is likely that those quantum processes are an important part of our cognitive and conscious brain functions.