Category Archives: Health

4 Means In Which You May Be Harming Yourself

10/28/2019 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

harming, life, healthy living, health — Pexels – CC0 License

It’s important to know just how and why we may be harming ourselves, because then we can put in practical solutions to prevent those habits from occurring again. All of us have our blind spots, and it can be somewhat frustrating to realize that we are our own worst enemy from time to time. Most people are not interested in actively harming themselves of course, but it could be that through misdirection, being misguided or simply not taking the right approach that we fail to consider how we are harming ourselves.

After all, life can be complex, and convenience, as well as practicality, are two measures by which we make many of our daily decisions. That being said, it’s not uncommon to fail to examine our lives, which may result in a few interesting insights coming to mind should we choose to apply them. In this post, we hope to explore the four means regarding how you may be harming yourself, to help you move forward and apply yourself to the best solution.

Here’s what that may look like:

A Lack Of Sleep

A lack of sleep can harm you in many ways. It can raise your stress levels, how irritable you are, how unable you are to focus on things, how difficult it is for your body to repair its vital processes, and it can open you up to illness. In fact, high levels of drowsiness or sleep impairment can affect your brain much in the same way as mild intoxication. If you need to drive, or operate machinery, or do anything that requires careful thought, planning or physical action – you are going to perform much less adequately than you could have. This is why it’s essential to ensure you have a healthy sleep schedule, and not only that, but you continue to try and improve it. Do not allow yourself to go without sleep, or to have a bad sleeping pattern, or to tolerate an uncomfortable or poorly ventilated bed and bedroom. After all, we spend almost a third of our lives asleep, and so it’s essential to ensure this is well considered.

Stress & Fear

Stress, perhaps due to a lack of rest, hard circumstances or demanding work and family obligations can be truly hard on your body. It not only makes you age more quickly, but can leave you feeling worn out, more impulsive, and high levels of cortisol can actually lead you to panic attacks and other fundamental issues that we all need to consider.

Additionally, stress can lead to fear, and that’s never a promising emotion to feel while you’re trying to live a careful and deliberate life. This is why it’s important to ensure that you are meditating, that you are eating well, that you are dealing with your stress through expression, therapy, lessening your load, sharing that load, meditation, and good sleep. Additionally, we would recommend seeing your Doctor if the stress becomes too much to bear. Additionally, if you have certain anxieties about seeing healthcare professionals, it’s important to find someone who can cater to this. The best dentists, for example, know how to help your peace of mind while getting dental work.

Lack Of Socializing

Human beings need to be social in order to flourish and thrive, the same manner in which a plant needs sunlight to bloom. It’s important to connect with your family, your friends, and those close to you. Try to withdraw from harmful social scenes, or to only steward relationships with those you respect.

Do not be afraid of visiting someone just because, or to schedule a break with your husband or wife when you can, or to try and befriend someone new in your office. We know that making friends is important as a child, but we can often feel that acting as a lone wolf in adulthood is good enough. It’s not. Sometimes, going out of your social comfort zone and reaching out to someone can be as healthy an act as going to the gym. Try it, and see for yourself.

Failing To Enjoy Nature

It’s the right of every person to enjoy nature, but failing to ever surround yourself with it can be a problem. Nature can give us a means to relax, to lower our stress levels, to lower our heart rates and blood pressure, and can be the perfect conduit to socialize or get exercise. As far as that is concerned, this is worth taking care of.

With this advice, you are sure to avoid the four means in which you may harm yourself.

Health, Life

5 Ways You Could Be Damaging Your Hearing Without Realising

10/22/2019 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

hearing, health, ears, lifestyle — **Pixabay. CCO Licensed.**

Hearing loss can occur naturally with age, but there are many bad habits and poor life decisions that can also damage our hearing. Here are just five ways in which you may be damaging your hearing without knowing.

Listening to music too loud

Regularly listening to loud music could be causing damage to your ears. This could include listening to music loudly on speakers or on headphones. Ringing in the ears after listening to music is a clear sign that you’re listening to your music too loudly and causing damage. Turn down the volume a notch if you’ve noticed this.

Not wearing ear protection in loud environments

Certain loud environments can also cause hearing damage if you don’t wear ear protection. Rock concerts, motorsports events and construction sites are just a few examples. If you’re in this environment for work reasons, your employer may be legally entitled to supply ear protection. If it’s a leisure activity, then it’s your responsibility to wear ear protection. There are cool ear plugs on the market that can protect your hearing and ensure sound clarity (great for concerts!).

Using cotton buds to clean your ears

Many people use cotton buds to clean out their ears, but this can actually cause hearing problems in the long run. Cotton buds tend to push ear wax further into the ear canal, which can then cause blockages resulting in muffled hearing. It’s also possible to damage the ear canals and ear drum causing permanent damage. As a rule, never stick anything into your ears. It’s healthy to have some wax in your ears, but if you’ve got a large wax build-up, you’re better off using ear drops or asking your doctor to get it professionally removed.

Not wearing a hearing aid when you need one

Once hearing loss has started to occur, it could be a wise idea to see an audiologist and get yourself a hearing aid fitted. Wearing a hearing aid will ease the strain on your ear and could slow down or even stop any further hearing loss. There are lots of different hearing aids out there which you can learn more about online. Some hide behind the ear and are pretty much unnoticeable.

Ignoring an ear infection

Ear infections can occur for various reasons. While some infections will go away on their own, others can spread and cause lasting damage to your ears. An infection following a perforated eardrum can be particularly serious, possibly causing permanent and severe hearing loss. A few signs that you possibly have an ear infection include dizziness, hearing loss, earache and a sense of fullness in the ear. You should see a doctor immediately if you suspect you have an infection – they will be able to prescribe the best course of treatment.

Going Healthy, Health, Life, Parenting

Older And Bolder: Coping With Ailing Health While Still Being A Good Parent

10/11/2019 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

health, parenting, aging, getting old, anxiety, healthy — Image – CC0 Licence

Being a dad is all about the physical, mental, and emotional. Whether it’s through the great experiences you have with your children, the challenges you suffer, as well as the good and bad times, it’s the biggest learning curve that you will ever undergo in your lives. As we get older we can find that it becomes more difficult to look after our kids, quite possibly because we are suffering ourselves. In one respect, getting older is to blame, but with getting older, comes a plethora of issues that we either anticipated, or we didn’t think would ever come. What are the best ways to be the best parent you can be, while also coping with these issues?

Fight To Keep Your Body A Temple

As angry as it can make you, if your body doesn’t do what you want it to do it can feel like fighting a losing battle, but you have to remember that there are things you can do to keep yourself in as good a condition as possible. We can spend a lot of time feeling sorry for ourselves rather than looking for a method to keep ourselves fighting fit. Granted, the internet can provide a lot of false information, especially with long-term problems like arthritis, but at the same time, are you doing enough to keep the problems at bay? If you have tried everything, you could always go to a specialist, get recommended for something like stem cell therapy or look at altering your lifestyle so so you take the edge off.

Have “The Talk”

You feel that you have to be the stronger person, especially with your children, and sometimes it can feel like the polar opposite. It could seem like your child is taking care of you which causes a lot of stress. The important thing is to talk about it. It’s one of the best ways to combat the stress, but also, your children need to know, in as honest a manner as possible, how you are feeling. Remember that as your child gets older, they will be able to understand more, but this means you’ll have to reinforce the message more than once. If your child is too young to comprehend, you don’t have to go into great detail, but explain there are things that you’re not able to do right now that other parents can. At the same time, remember that they need reassurance. They may have concerns, but also, they may just want to help. While it’s important to let them help, make sure they’re not doing too much for you because this role of a caregiver could very well place unwanted and unnecessary pressure upon them.

Sometimes You Have To Prioritize Yourself

As we need to set an example for our children, it can feel like we need to push ourselves into overdrive. This means pushing through the pain, but sometimes we have to take a step back and look at it in the grand scheme of things. In one respect, letting your children see you push through the pain is a good behavioral trait, but if this is been going on for a long time, you’ve got to know when to put the foot on the brake. Finding the right balance is crucial, but so is realizing when you just have to prioritize yourself. You may need a bit of rest, or you just want some time away, but t’s important to communicate to your children that they aren’t the root cause of this. It is so easy for our children to feel like they are to blame, but as long as you reinforce the truth, and tell them that you need a rest, or give them other things to do, this can help lighten the load.

Get Help, Even Though You Are Too Proud

If we are suffering in one way or another, getting help is an obvious solution on the surface, but we can feel so proud to do this; help is something we shouldn’t be afraid to ask for. You might even be eligible for assistance depending on your condition. And we can all feel a bit proud to even say the words “I need help,” but if we’ve been in pain for a long time, there comes a point when our skills can start to suffer. We have to remember that we’re not just doing it for ourselves, but our children. And with any condition, whether it’s a chronic illness or a mental health problem, it is all about making sure that everybody benefits from you being around.