Anger Management: How to Control Your Emotions and Stay Calm

Anger is a natural human emotion that can range from mild irritation to intense rage. It is a response to perceived threats or injustices, and can often be a healthy and necessary emotion. However, when anger is not managed properly, it can lead to negative outcomes such as physical violence, damaged relationships, and health problems.

To manage anger effectively, it is important to first recognize the signs of anger in yourself and others. These can include physical symptoms such as increased heart rate, tense muscles, and clenched fists, as well as behavioral changes such as yelling, blaming, or withdrawing from others.

Once you have identified the signs of anger, there are several strategies you can use to manage it effectively. These include:

1. Taking a break from the situation to calm down
2. Engaging in relaxation techniques such as deep breathing or progressive muscle relaxation
3. Using cognitive reframing to challenge and change negative thoughts and beliefs
4. Communicating assertively to express your needs and boundaries without being aggressive
5. Seeking professional help if anger is causing significant problems in your life.

By learning and practicing anger management techniques, you can better control your emotions and prevent anger from causing harm to yourself and others.

Healing Foods

Brenda Langton to launch course teaching cooking techniques for healthful, immune-bolstering food

Brenda Langton has an old saying she swears by: "If you don't take time to eat well, sooner or later you will to take time to be sick."

You will have no trouble eating well if you visit Langton's acclaimed restaurants — Café Brenda in the Warehouse District and Spoonriver on the riverfront near the Guthrie Theater. Both restaurants feature outstanding dishes made of organic and natural foods.

"This has been my lifelong goal — to get good food into people," Langton said.

Her restaurants have been one avenue for that cause. Now she has another — a new three-day course in March offered by the University of Minnesota's Center for Spirituality & Healing. In the class, "Healthy Eating/Healthy Living," Langton, a senior fellow at the center, will go over several healthful recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks to get you through the day.

Highlights include homemade hummus, buckwheat potato croquette, miso vegetable soup, creamy soft polenta, and coconut rice pudding with cardamom, almonds, and golden raisins. Some of the recipes are featured in Brenda's classic cookbook, "The Café Brenda Cookbook."

"My concern is teaching people how to cook very healthy, immune-boosting foods that are simple. For me, simple is of the utmost importance — simple and delicious," Langton said. "I'm trying to use foods that are more like whole grains, legumes and lots of vegetables, nuts — plant-based proteins and fish."

Mary Jo Kreitzer, director of the Center for Spirituality & Healing, said the course is a natural fit for the center.

"As we look at how to help people make healthy lifestyle changes, how we eat is such a big part of that. So many people have really just grown up with fast food, processed food," she said. "What I love about Brenda's approach is that eating natural doesn't have to be time-consuming, doesn't have to be expensive. The key to it is planning."

Langton, a Bryn Mawr resident, plans to go over grocery shopping tips, too. She's a major fan of the local co-ops and urges others to shop at them to stock up on fresh, local produce.

"People get in ruts. With a little bit of planning and grocery shopping and having several new recipes to get going, it's not difficult [to make changes]," she said.

Langton has been focusing on healthful foods for years. She opened her first restaurant Café Kardamena in the late 1970s at the age of 21. She opened Café Brenda in 1986, and her latest venture, Spoonriver, opened in 2006.

While eating well is second nature for her, she's concerned about people who haven't tuned into all the research about the impact of diet on health. She points to skyrocketing sugar consumption and the tendency for so many people to skimp on vegetables.

"There is so much information out there, scientific evidence that diet is really the base of our health," she said. "If we don't have a good diet, we don't have a good immune system. If we don't have a good immune system, then that's when problems set in."

In addition to managing her restaurants and teaching the new course, she's also working on creating a video for the Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota. In the video, she goes over healthful-cooking tips with her daughter. In the spring, summer and fall months, she's busy with the Mill City Farmers Market. She is one of the founders of the market, which features a variety of local vendors devoted to providing organic and sustainable goods.

Clearly, there's a lot on her plate these days.

"Let's face it — we live at a very hectic pace. This is no joke," she said. "I have to feel good. I have to have energy to get through my day, and this is the way to do it — by eating good food."

By Sarah McKenzie

Doctor calls spirituality key to dying patient's quality of life

Medicine shrinks from caring for the spiritual needs of dying patients, even though spirituality is what most people yearn for most at the end of life, Franciscan Brother Daniel Sulmasy, a physician and philosopher, told an audience at the University of San Francisco April 28.

Doctors tend to ignore spiritual care or back away from it out of fear of inadequacy or invading patients' privacy, Brother Sulmasy said. Often they think they are helping, but underserve patients by turning spiritual questions into technical problems, he said.

For dying patients, the impulse is the reverse, he said: The terminal patient whose spiritual life is outstanding despite great physical distress reports having an outstanding quality of life.

The split is so large that a new model for medical education may be needed, he said. The model would integrate biological, social and spiritual issues in training doctors.

Doctors should be mindful that patients' spiritual questions are fundamental -- deeper than the biological, moral and ethical issues that concern clinicians and hospital ethics advisory boards, said Brother Sulmasy, who holds the Sisters of Charity chair in ethics at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York.

"Spirituality is incredibly important in the care of patients and it's shocking how we do wind up ignoring so much of it," he said.

Brother Sulmasy opened his talk with the case of a 54-year-old man, Mr. "W." Dying of cancer, the patient was Christian and believed in the possibility of miracles, but also accepted that God might not grant one in his case. In reviewing the transcripts of interviews with the patient's caregivers, Brother Sulmasy found that despite the patient's outspoken spirituality his spiritual care fell short.

Mr. W's belief in miracles caused some confusion for the medical team. As a result he was transferred to a nursing home rather than to hospice care, where he would have received better treatment for his pain.

"It was stunning the way this man was treated," Brother Sulmasy said. "There's nothing that says the patient who believes in miracles is ineligible for hospice, but somehow the hospice care team felt that belief was an issue."

A chaplain, though, had correctly diagnosed the underlying problem. As Brother Sulmasy paraphrased the chaplain: "When I look at a patient I look at the primary, core spiritual need. Is it a request for meaning to try to determine what their life meant? Or are they looking for validation of their life? Or trying to reconcile broken relationships?"

Meaning, value and relationship are the ingredients of spiritual health and become urgent in the last months of life as patients strive for dignity and hope despite losing their productivity and appearance, Brother Sulmasy said.

"People who were able to find meaning in their illness, meaning in their dying, are people who understand what it is to hope in a deep way," he said.

He stressed how important it is for dying patients to reconcile relationships with family, friends and God. "The brokenness of their bodies reminds patients in a deep way about the brokenness of their relationships," he said. "They're looking perhaps to express their own forgiveness of someone who had hurt them or to try to be reconciled to those they had hurt, to try to bring families and friends together in ways that arise as they're dying in a very salient way."

Brother Sulmasy displayed a detail from a Giotto painting of the dying St. Francis of Assisi. The detail shows a monk kissing the saint's stigmatic wounds. It is part of a scene in which St. Francis is dying at home surrounded by his friends and watched over by God. The scene embodies the three ingredients of spiritual health for the dying person -- meaning, value and relationship.

"You see a picture of somebody who is surrounded by people who love him, who are supremely present to him, who care about him ... as a whole person," he said. "They are praying with him, engaged with him as a whole person in this experience.

"I think this is death with dignity," Brother Sulmasy said. "If it was possible in the 14th century, why isn't it possible for us in the 21st?"

By Rick DelVecchio

Laugh, but if you cannot, watch how do laugh other people!!!

Are you depressed?
Just smile and your bad mood will leave you without a trace!!!



Do not feel shy to laugh and you will be surprised at how your life and health change. Good and kind laughter is useful and healthy not because it elevates your spirits.



People who like to laugh – less feel sick, less become annoyed and do not know what it means this thing depression.



Laughter calms your nerves

During laughter your organism releases endorphins (they occur naturally in your brain) – “hormones of happiness”, exactly they help you to get rid of irritation and sadness.



Even if you recall the minutes you were laughing – your mood would get better at once.



Laughter conquers your stress

British scientists investigated the influence of laughter on people’s health. Two groups of people, volunteers, took part in this experiment. During one hour one group was watching comic videos, the second group was asked just sitting in silence. After this experimentation all participants did blood tests. This research revealed that people were watching funny records, had a low level of “stress” hormones like cortisol, dopamine and adrenalin than the second group.



The fact is that when we laugh- all our body and all organs experience more physical work. When we stop laughing our body relaxes, rests and slows down.

Conclusion

Thus means, that laughter helps to get out of physical and emotional tension. Scientists insist on one minute of laughing, as one minute of frank laughter is equal to 45 minutes of deep relaxation.

3 Steps To Reclaiming Your Power and Happiness

Reclaiming your power and happiness can be accomplished easily, bringing joy, excitement and energy back to your body and life. Our power is gained when we speak the truth. To really be free and happy, we are called to speak the truth. Words are more important than we realize. In Jesus' original teachings, the word is creation itself. Just think how we create with the words we speak. What are we saying all day long, and how are these words creating in our life.

Speaking the truth can be challenging at times. Often, we are afraid of being rejected if we really let others know how we feel. Fear of hurting someone's feelings is often what stops us from speaking the truth. We may also be afraid of starting an argument if we speak the truth.

Unfortunately, when we don't speak the truth, we unconsciously create manipulative ways of dealing with our unexpressed emotions. We find ourselves saying or doing things that are not really our truth. In this way, we betray ourselves. Then, we will notice that depression is often the result of not speaking what we feel and think. Withholding our feelings leads to separation or distancing from others. We cannot experience the closeness and warmness that we truly desire. Often, we blame ourselves or the others for the lack of communication and guilt may be the result. We may find ourselves being angry and becoming agitated. All of this can be corrected easily when we are willing to step forward and speak the truth.

3 Steps to Regain Your Power and Happiness

First Step: Begin to notice where in your life you are holding back from expressing your feelings and thoughts. Where are you holding back from asking for what you want? Now, get a notebook and begin to write your thoughts and feelings in great detail. In your journal, ask for what you want and then write why you think you deserve to have what you want. During this process you will get to know yourself very deeply and discover why you feel scared, frustrated, powerless and unhappy. In this process you begin to untangle all the built up emotions that get us bogged down and suddenly you have lost your joy.

Second Step: The next step will open your voice and your heart up. It will empower you. Your happiness will begin to rise up the scale as well as your self worth, which is directly related to your sense of power. When you are ready, go to a very private place; maybe this is your car with the windows rolled up. In your safe, private place begin to speak your thoughts and feelings to the universe, to the person who you have been withholding your feelings from. Speak as much of your true feelings out loud. This will get you in touch with the deep self. Next, surrender any hurt, anger, fear or resentment. Once you are clear of these emotions, your communications will be filled with a new energy.

Third Step: You are now ready to speak the truth and reclaim your power. There is no blaming in this communication because you are clear and have taken responsibility for your feelings and surrendered them to your Sacred Energy. You have been purified and now you will be empowering yourself by speaking the truth about your feelings and needs in a deep and profound way. The power you gain is the power of love. Remember the truth will set your free.

For more exciting tips on how to live from the center of your being using your Sacred Energy to create a life of joy, peace and love go to http://www.VirginiaEllen.net Virginia Ellen is an author and mystical teacher and healer.

Life Transformation, Spiritual Growth, And Healing - Six Steps For Creating Results In Anything

Here are six areas to explore when you're looking at succeeding in any human endeavor (sports, business, relationships, test-taking, public speaking, and more). You can write your responses to the six steps to accelerate your performance in any way you like.

1. What do you want to accomplish? Explain this in as much detail at possible. IF you like, you can make a list.

2. What have you done already to accomplish this? This may be steps you have already taken or related accomplishments that you've had previously. Explain or list these.

3. What's in the way? What do you know is creating a barrier? If you don't know, you can finish this sentence: "I don't want to ____because." You can keep on asking this until you feel like you've located anything in the way of your accomplishments.

4. What resources do you have within yourself to do this? Take a look at what skills and talents you have that make it possible for you to do what you'd like to do. Finding your resources reinforces your confidence and assures you that since you have already created a high level of accomplishment in another area, you can do it again in this one.

5. Can you imagine yourself as you'd like to be? Explore this in as much detail as possible. See I t, feel it, explore it, or get an impression. Let it become alive in you.

6. Are there any words or phrases that can symbolize your accomplishment? If so, what might they be? Can you put your thumb and index finger together and say your word or phrase to strengthen your intention?

© 2007 Marilyn Gordon

Want to learn more about life transformation, spiritual growth, and healing? You can download my 100 page free ebook, Extraordinary Healing at http://www.thewisemind.com