Bad Moods

You need to understand why you're really down. Everyone gets into bad moods, but eventually we get over them. The main reason we have trouble extracting ourselves from them more quickly is because oftentimes we're not aware of what's causing it.

The next time you get into a bad mood, try taking the following steps improve your mood. However, remember that you first have to figure out what’s causing it.

1. Guilt. Feeling even mildly guilty can have a huge impact on our mood. Forgetting someone’s birthday can make you feel bad even if you apologize. The best way to resolve guilty feelings is to atone for your actions. If you still feel bad about the missed birthday, take a few minutes to send a belated card or buy a small gift. They will appreciate the gesture and it makes you feel better.

2. Small rejections. Rejections are an extremely common emotional injury, especially in the age of social media. Facebook's "likes" cause many to feel bad if not acknowledged. It's very important not to take things personally. Actually it's a social media experiment for others to peruse. Again, a text and/or a phone call can clear up the questionable thoughts. Don't point out on Facebook type social media outlets your personal feeling or rejections. When you do ... ALL CAN SEE.

3. Outstanding tasks. Our mental to-do lists can sit in the back of our mind, nag at us, and bring down our mood. But you don’t have to complete every outstanding task to improve your mood. Studies have found that just making a plan for tackling tasks is sufficient to eliminate the mental nagging and improve your mood. So you decide when you’ll do the task, and watch your mood lighten.

4. Brooding. Many of us can get stuck replaying upsetting scenes that occurred days, weeks, or even months ago. When an upsetting visual continues in the back of your mind, use distraction techniques to reduce the intensity and frequency. Studies show that even a two-minute distraction is sufficient to disrupt the distressing thought and restore your mood.

5. Having a low self-esteem day. Like the proverbial bad hair day, sometimes we just wake up feeling bad about ourselves, for no apparent reason. Our self-esteem tends to fluctuate but it is also important to prop it up when it is low. Therefore, when your self-esteem is in a slump, do something to make you feel good about yourself. Exercise and release some much needed endorphins, or perhaps wear your favorite outfit. Even better, call someone who truly appreciates you and makes you feel good about who you are.

6. Fearing failure. We can worry about an upcoming sporting event, a work related project, or an important exam for days or even weeks beforehand. To get out of that fixation, focus on things that are within your control. Exercise, create support among peers by being supportive and encouraging of their work, making them more likely to be supportive of yours.

7. Feeling disconnected. Often times we can get so caught up in life that we neglect our emotional and social needs. Thus, we begin to feel disconnected from the people around us. To move past this feeling, give a loved one a call or take a break and play with your pet.

8. Getting caught up in small annoyances. As we go about our busy lives, small annoyances such as incorrect charges on a bill, cable service on the fritz, car stalling can become exaggerated and ruin our mood. To restore it, get perspective and remind yourself of the big picture. Most of the small annoyances are forgotten with days. Life affirmations are also an excellent example to reprogram the mind.

9. Hunger. Low blood sugar has an enormous impact both mentally and physically. Being hungry impacts our mood far more than we tend to realize. If it’s been a while since you last ate...have a snack.

10. Exhaustion. Children aren’t the only ones who get cranky when they’re tired. When adults don’t get enough sleep it significantly impacts our thinking, creativity, and especially our general mood. If you can, take a short nap. Even a brief nap can be sufficient to recharge your batteries and bump you out of the doldrums.

"I'm not in a bad mood, everyone else is just annoying."

It's Easy To Quit

Do you have a difficult task before you? It's easy to quit, but what then have you accomplished? Would you like to win in the game of life? Here's a heads up - a quitter never wins and a winner never quits. The game becomes fascinating as you learn to play it. Give it a try!

A simple objective observation regarding quitting is quite simple. It's easy to quit. Regardless of whether your objective happens to be too far away, or you're too tired to keep on going and you end up quitting half way there. Please, don't be that person. When life provides you a difficult task to perform, don't stop when the going gets tough. See the thing through. Especially see it through regarding your education. Education encourages others to look up to you as a role model.

It is so easy to quit. Any fool can explain to themselves or their friends why the struggle was vain. Grow a pair! It doesn't take brains when you start cutting loose from a difficult task to think up an excuse. There is always a plausible, soul-soothing lie on the tongue of the person who refuses to try. What a horrible self-enabling concept.

I may be singled out as insensitive regarding my remarks. And there are those who will state that I'm passing judgement without knowing the facts. And, if I was in there place, I would stop in my tracks and quit also. Probably NOT! Many people defend themselves by saying they're not lazy, or fearful, or stupid, or dull. Worst of all I hear that health will not allow them to keep up the pace. They claim their liver does not function properly, or they have constant headaches, or even their spine is in a quirk. They further claim that aspirin, tranquilizers and other drugs don't work to make them feel better. My goodness, how can those folks continue with pain and/or their back "gives them a fit." Yes, that is being condescending. Hey .... Grow a pair! Don't quit!

The bottom line is that people are just thinking up excuses while traveling down the certain road of failure. By quitting, you are simply treating the effects without seeking the cause of the turmoil, whether it be emotional or physical.

"When you feel like quitting, try to remember why you started."

Watching The Clock

There is virtue in watching the clock to see when to start work, but not much in watching it to see when to quit.

Time is the most important thing you possess because it is life itself. Time well used is a life well spent. Merely wasting time is living to no avail.

Should you be one who says, "I always allow myself plenty of time and even then I am often late?" Watch the clock and start on time. When you allow yourself added time, you waste it loitering, or by doing useless things until time slips away from you . As a result you find yourself rushing in the end, and sometimes you don't make it because of the habits of being slow. In the business world, being on time means arriving 15 minutes early.

Watch the clock. Time yourself. Know how long it takes to do a given task, a routine thing. Then make time count, be on schedule, or rearrange the schedule to fit you requirements but be ready on the hour or on the minute as the case may be. When you learn to do this, you remain relaxed because you are sure of yourself, thus you always seem to have plenty of time.

Relaxation is important for accomplishment and also for health. No one can do good work when they are tense and hurried, nor can the organs of your body function properly when you are all tied up inside with stress and anxiety. Learn to relax. Take it easy. Watch the clock and keep things moving in quiet routine, properly coordinated within and without. You will feel better if you do.

Have you even noticed how quietly your heart beats, some 72 times a minute? Also, the rhythm of breathing at about 16 times a minute, and how constant the temperature of you body remains at 98.6 degrees. Of course, each of these functions changes tempo as emergencies arise, but the rhythm and coordination remain steadfast because of an Innate Intelligence directs and controls function in unison through the medium of the nervous system.

Watch the clock, and when you find your pace is slowing down, see your chiropractor and enjoy a better life.

"Yesterday is but today's memory, and tomorrow is today's dream."

Start From Here

When I was a young boy, I often visited my great grandfather in Beaverton, Michigan. I was always curious and asking questions of many things. On one of those occasions, I wondered about the city's name. While sitting on the front porch of his farm, I asked, "What is this place called Beaverton known for?"

He smiled down on me and replied, "Well, young Jimmy, this is the starting point for any place in the world you desire to go."

How true this is in life. Whatever you want to be, wherever you want to go, start from here and start now. It is up to you to choose your destination and the mode of travel. You may wish to advance your education and go off to college or join the military to serve your country. It doesn't matter which path you choose, simply start from here.

You are created with many hidden talents. Those talents may remain in neutral, or you have the choice to awaken them. Start from here, from where you are and make yourself what you want to be. The degree of your success is determined by how much of yourself you put into your undertaking ... and especially how soon you start.

Some talents evolve slowly, but all talents must be encouraged, awakened, developed, practiced and trained. As you sow, so shall you reap; nothing more. The time to begin is here and now, wherever you may be. Take the first step with your objective in life clearly in mind. Keep on keeping on, and your goal will be reached.

There can always be obstacles in your way. Some of you may be  physically or emotionally "handicapped". Some may have chosen a lesser educational level in life, meaning you made that decision by choice or by life's dictate. So what! Many persons, both male and female, have faced life's hurdles, yet they have succeeded. They even utilized their stumbling block as a steppingstone.

Jimmy Durante had a big nose, Abraham Lincoln was not an attractive man and had no formal education. So what! They started from where they were and went to the top. And remember, as you strive for your goals, your physical and emotional well-being is performing at it's finest.

Try being a role model for yourself ... then you become a role model for others.

Sleep Challenges

We need to understand why we need a good night's sleep, and in the majority of cases, more of it. If you habitually stay up late at night, but still get up early, you must understand that you are doing more harm than good. Research has shown that sleeping five hours or less per night is associated with a significant increase in heart disease. A lack of sleep has also been associated with migraines and chronic pain.

College students who slept four hours of sleep for six night produced only 50 percent of the antibodies from their shot (NOT promoting flu shots here). There is significant evidence that sleep deprived people consume more calories and higher amounts of fat in their daily diets.

Studies also suggest five hours of sleep and sedentary lifestyle habits can bring a person to a pre-diabetic level in a matter of two weeks.

As we learn more about the human brain, we are beginning to get insight into sleep. Some of the latest statistics are:

Nearly 60 percent of adults report having sleep problems.

Only 37 percent get the recommended hours per night.

About half of sleep problems are stress related.

American filled 60 million prescriptions for sleeping pills last year.

"Laugh and world laughs with you; snore, and you sleep alone!"

The Kingdom Within

A kingdom is generally considered a domain ruled by a king or queen, but a kingdom may have a broader meaning. In nature it relates to the mineral, animal, or vegetable kingdoms. It can pertain to the kingdom of God, the source of love, faith, and hope from whence life, beauty, and plenty come.

Someone once wrote the following rhyme:

"In the form of a bulb is the promise of spring;

In the little blue egg is the bird that will sing;

In the soul of the seed is the hope of the sod;

In the heart of a child is the kingdom of God."

The source of all good, all strength, all power comes from within when harnessed and controlled. Out of control, this power may be destructive, harmful, and even dangerous.

Another poet once wrote:

"I hold it true that thoughts are things

Endowed with bodies, breath, and wings;

And that we send them forth to fill

The world with good results or ill."

How are you employing the kingdom within you? Do you keep your emotions under control, or do you let fear, worry, hate, and resentment corrupt your life? Is your kingdom charged with beauty, or does it harbor strife? Your kingdom is nourished by the food that you give it and your life is a reflection of how you live it.

Perhaps you excuse yourself because of ill health, and that germs of disease have nestled within your body and subsequently blocks your endeavor each time you being to advance. Analyze that situation!

Your body has been called God's masterpiece. A masterpiece is as perfect as it is possible to make it. Any extra dabbing or addition to a masterpiece may mar it's beauty, it's quality, it's worth. This may be true when you doctor effects by numbing pain with drugs instead of correcting the cause of the health problem. Seek a more natural solution with regard to exercise, proper nutrition and a positive mental attitude. It works!

"Some people get lost in thought because it is unfamiliar territory to them." 

Speaking of Ethics

Much is being said about ethical practices in relation to human conduct in various avenues of life, law, business, politics and especially medical practices. I shall forego politics because it's just too easy to vent frustrations.

Turning to the dictionary, we find ethics defined as "the science of moral duty; broadly, science of ideal human character; moral principles, quality of practice."

In view of this definition, it is interesting to note Section 3 of the American Medical Association's principles of medical ethics:

"Section 3. A physician should practice a method of healing founded on a scientific basis; and he should not voluntarily associate professionally with anyone who violates this principle."

With that stated, what then is a scientific basis? The definition is thus;a method of investigation in which a problem is first identified and observations, experiments, or other relevant data are then used to construct or test hypotheses that purport to solve it." And there you have it! Chiropractic is genuinely acknowledged as scientific. Pre and post examinations reveal the scientific basis, both subjectively but most importantly objective findings.

“I charge my patients for my service and expertise, my heart is free.” 

Ideas and Ideals

Ideas are the basis of all progress. Ideals form standards worthy of emulation. Ideas come like a flash, and make a splash in the pool of your mind. But, when an idea is not followed through, it may sink into oblivion, perhaps never to return. When ideas are employed, however, they may create wonders. Ideas are sometimes persistent and keep burning within your soul until you are forced to action that makes your dream come true.

Someone once said, "Ideals are like stars; we never reach them, but like mariners at sea, we chart our course by them."

What is your ideal in life? Is it to be helpful, to be of service to do good, to lend a helping hand, or is money, wealth or fame your ideal? Whatever your goal may be, you chart your life by it. Thus, you will either lay up treasures in heaven or you will selfishly be king of your own little world and never rise above it.

Perhaps you will say your world of usefulness is limited by the state of your health. Worry and fear of disease limit your vision and ability to think clearly which precludes helpful ideas and blurs the vision of ideals. What can you do about it?

You must begin to realize that health, as with like ideas and subsequent ideals, come from within. Of course, there is a difference in expression, but the source is much the same. Ideals are governed largely by your emotions. Health comes principally through the nervous system that stems from the brain and spinal cord. This being true, the spine becomes the distributing center of the nervous system, and subsequently involving the hormonal system.

"Killing time may be murdering opportunity."

Do First Things First

Do first things first and do them now. Putting things off is to defeat your objective and to leave you at the back of the line.

Many things in your life may be clamoring to be done. And all may be important, but nevertheless one thing perhaps deserves priority. Even so, many other things have an influence on the rest. Do first thing first.

Plant the proper seed and as it grows other things of worth will eventually fit into the picture and fill the gap for the rest to follow. Remember, as you sow, so shall you reap. That is the best way to take care of important issues. Do it now and by so doing you will never become swamped with countless things that get out of control.

Have a plan, and work your plan. That is the logical way to get things done and be happy in your work, accomplishments and relationships.

Should your greatest hurdle be your health, do something about it! You may plan well, but in the midst of your plan dis-ease takes the ease out of the things you must do, and disrupts the vital things you need to do. In that case, health restoration becomes the big problem, and the first thing to consider. For recovery, DO NOT rely on aspirins, shots, and other mind and physically altering drugs. At best these things merely numb the pain and leave the vital health problem unchanged. Find the cause of your problem and take care of it now, before you lose your focus and/or function.

See a chiropractor, and begin the natural way to heal ....

My coach once told me:  "Think, for the mind tells the body what to do."