By Tamma Ford

Instead of running to a doctor or outside authority to solve every problem of yours – isn’t it far better to live in a way that you don’t fall ill or feel stressed out?

Why depend on outside authorities?  They can never save you from the problems caused by a lifestyle that is unbalanced by an oversupply of negativity and limiting habits.

Taking care of yourself is admirable – and totally possible!  ARC’s approach to self-care is called Releasing, and it can be added to any traditional solution you choose.

Here is a selection from the many tips shared by members of our Community on how to live a more happily balanced and harmonious life.  And by the way: The Community says doing these things also improves Health!

• Practice the Quiet Mind

Introspection.  Self-examination.  Self-improvement.  By far the top recommendation of ARC’s Community is to “get quiet – frequently and regularly!”

Get into a quiet, calm mind for a few minutes … or longer.  Such quietness allows you to detach yourself from the worries of life, so that you return to your everyday life with new clarity and peace!  Masters of the ages have given us many ways to achieve this.  Pick one!

• Laugh … at Life

If at the end of the day you realize you haven’t laughed even once – do so!  Laughter is healing and relaxing.  Laughter has turned tears of frustration into tears of joyful mirth!  The Masters tell us:  Life isn’t as serious as we make it out to be.  So?  Laugh!

• Tell yourself “I Love You”

Instead of making yourself feel guilty about things and disapproving of yourself and your life – Stop!  Just say to yourself “I love you”.  Say it over and over.  Don’t spin on the negativity anymore!  Positive energy – Love – feels good!

The ancient Masters knew that challenging the Mind and all its limiting habits is the key to peace of mind, harmony with the world – and health for your body.  If any of this is new for you, ARC‘s way – Releasing – can make it go more easily!  Learn Releasing in ARC’s Foundational Course for Living your Potential©!

We are always seeking to reach our own highest potential as individuals. We think if we go to college or learn a rare skill and make it big in life – that will do it for us. And when we’ve done that, we are still unhappy. Because we are never happy with the little slice of life we are living, we go back and try something else to “reach our highest potential”. And over and over. We end up calling it a pipe-dream.

With the Releasing as a daily habit, you really get to understand that humans limit themselves in all sorts of unbelievable ways. We listen to all manner of negativity and scandal and melodrama and madness every day and call it normal. As you use Releasing to drop negativity, you realize that negativity is the illusion – happiness is the reality.

Happiness, unlimited living (and I’m not just talking about money), inner serenity and Freedom all the time can be normal. A feeling of abundance and all-havingness is what becomes normal for you, and that’s more than most people even dare dream of.

Releasing allows you to dream big, have it big, and be happy. It sounds like a tall order, but just read some of the testimonials on our website! Then try the Foundational Course for Living Your Potential for yourself and take it for checking! Set your sights very high. Lester Levenson used to say, “Every impossible, no matter how impossible, is immediately possible when you are released on it.”

An ounce of prevention is certainly better than a pound of cure. Here are seven tips on how to live a long and healthy life. In addition, the same life style that helps you to avoid illness also helps you to lose weight.

1. Get Enough Exercise

In the past people had to use their physical bodies in the course of their normal work. But today someone may get up, go to work in a car, then sit down, get up to go home in the car and when arriving at home, sit down again for the rest of the day. In such a life there is no physical labor. This physical inactivity is one of the main reasons for a host of diseases. Sport, running. walking and other things must be added to our life if our normal work does not require us to exert ourselves physically. I

2. Go to sleep when you feel sleepy

This may sound simple, but many people stay up late even when their body is telling them that it is time to sleep. Yoga and Ayurvedic doctors also say that it is better to sleep in the night and be active during the day. However, people such as students will take coffee and stimulants to study late into the night. Others develop the habit of remaining active at night and sleeping during the day. While we can do this, it eventually takes a toll on health. Alternative health doctors say that this kind of unnatural living is one of the contributing factors in the causation of cancer and other diseases

3. Eat when you feel hungry

This is also a simple idea, but once again we often go against the messages of the body. If you eat out of habit or due to social pressure at certain time of the day, even when you have no real appetite, then you will not digest your food properly. Acidity and indigestion begin, and this contributes to the likelihood of other more complex diseases taking root. Having an appetite is actually a sign of good health, but if you have no appetite you should wait a bit and then eat. (If you have no appetite even after awaiting a reasonable amount of time, then you should consult a doctor because something is wrong.)

4.Fast on a Regular, Systematic Basis

If you would ask any person to work 365 days per year without any rest, they would complain and say that they must have some rest or else they will break down. But we have never bothered to ask or to think about our digestive organs which we compel to work day after day without a rest. They cannot protest the way a person would to his boss, but they do give us signals that they cannot work non-stop. When we ignore those signals and still compel them to work, those organs break down. That is why periodic fasting is necessary. Refrain from eating for one complete day. This gives a rest to your digestive organs and also helps in the elimination of wastes from your body. Regular fasting allows a person to gain extra time for intellectual or spiritual pursuits. Fasting is not for hermits in a cave, but is a sensible practice that anyone can practice.

5. Wash with cool water before going to bed

As mentioned above, proper sleep is essential for the maintenance of health. If you wash your important motor and sensory organs (hands, arms, eyes, legs, mouth, genitals) before sleep using cool water, this will relax you and prepare you for deep sleep.

6. Perform meditation on a regular basis

Your body is linked to your mind. Many of the diseases of this era are psychosomatic. Stress and anxiety take their toll on our physical health. Meditation is a mental exercise which, among other things, allows you to detach yourself from the worries of life. Learn a simple technique and do it regularly.

7. Get up early every day

Once again the old proverb, “Early to bed, early to rise makes a person healthy, wealthy and wise.” I don’t know if it will make you wealthy, but it will certainly make you healthy. Your body needs just enough sleep, not too much and not too little.

Follow these tips and you can’t go wrong.

The use of meditation (and related practices like Releasing, Breath work, prayer and others) for both healing and spiritual enlightenment is an ancient practice that is common among the world’s great religions and cultures. It is now an accepted and proven alternative therapy in Western cultures that is still generally classified under “mind-body medicine.”

Many health care providers consider meditation as a key element of an integrated health program. However, when you are having a hard time getting into that meditative state, try to enroll in a class. It will help and guide you with your progress. Any practice that can evoke the relaxation response can be beneficial, be it through Releasing, meditation, yoga, breath work, or repetitive prayer. The growing body of research literature on meditation and other alternative therapies gives us no reason to believe that one is better than the other.

Through the years, more and more people have found meditation as an effective way to ease chronic pain, improve heart health, relieve stress and anxiety, boost mood and immunity, and resolve pregnancy problems. Even doctors are already prescribing meditation as a way to lower blood pressure; improve exercise performance in people with angina; help people with asthma breathe easier; and to relieve insomnia. It is a safe and simple way to balance a person’s physical, emotional, and mental well-being.

According to cardiologist Herbert Benson, MD: “Any condition that’s caused or worsened by stress can be alleviated through meditation.” Benson is the founder of the Mind/Body Institute at Harvard Medical School’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He said that the relaxation induced by meditation can help decrease metabolism, lower blood pressure, and improve heart rate, breathing, and brain waves. When the body receives a quiet message to relax, tension and tightness begin to seep from muscles.

Brain scans (or functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or fMRI) of people who meditate or Release have been used to show scientific evidence that meditation and Releasing really work! It shows an increase in activity in areas that control metabolism and heart rate. Other studies on Buddhist monks have shown that meditation produces long-lasting changes in the brain activity in areas involving attention, working memory, learning, and conscious perception.

Meditation is not difficult to learn but it is a skill that needs to be practiced in order to develop the ability to focus on the breathing patterns and the need to ignore distracting thoughts.

Meditation is usually accompanied by a mantra, a word or phrase that is repeatedly chanted to produce a biological response such as relaxation. The soothing power of repetition is at the heart of meditation. Constant practice of meditation allows people to learn and develop the ability to produce meditative and relaxed states without difficulty. Meditating several times during the day makes the practitioner feel relaxed throughout the entire day.

Benefits of Meditation

Heart Health: Countless studies have shown that regular practice has significantly helped reduce high blood pressure. A study conducted at the College of Maharishi Vedic Medicine in Fairfield, Iowa, showed significant lowering of blood pressure and heart rate in black adults. Another study conducted by the American Journal of Hypertension showed that teenagers who meditated for 15 minutes twice a day for four months were able to lower their blood pressure a few points.

Immune Booster: In a Psychosomatic Medicine study testing immune function, meditation has been shown to be useful in warding off illness and infections. Flu shots were given to volunteers who had meditated for eight weeks and to people who didn’t meditate. The result of blood tests from the meditation group had produced higher levels of antibodies against the flu virus.

Women’s Health: Premenstrual syndrome (PMS), infertility problems, and even breastfeeding can be improved when women meditate regularly. In one study, PMS symptoms subsided by 58% when women meditated. Another study found that hot flashes were less intense among women who practiced meditation. Women struggling with infertility had much less anxiety, depression and fatigue following a 10-week meditation program; 34 percent became pregnant within six months. Also, new mothers who meditated on images of milk flowing from their breasts were able to more than double their production of milk.

Meditation Enhances Brain Activity

Those who practice meditation regularly showed evidence of significantly higher brain activity, called gamma wave activity, in areas associated with learning and happiness compared with those who didn’t practice meditation. Gamma waves involve mental processes including attention, memory, learning and conscious perception.