Community News
Hot Flashes, Be Gone!

Celebrating International Women’s Day by attending to your hot flashes may not be a bad idea! If you are experiencing hot flashes, night sweats or other disturbances in mood and sleep, you might like to know that Brainwave Optimization has been shown to be a safe and effective therapy to manage these symptoms. During the menopausal process, estrogen levels fluctuate and eventually fall enough to cause impaired temperature regulation, possibly associated with resetting in patterns of brain electrical activity. Hot flash severity scores, insomnia and depression have been shown to be significantly reduced after participants attended to that brain electrical activity with Brainwave Optimization. Imagine yourself at a “brain spa” where you sit in a chair listening to the acoustic feedback of your own brain activity translated into auditory tones. Not only do you relax; more importantly, your brain relaxes and rebalances its activity, reducing those disturbing menopausal symptoms.

Joanne Couture, RMFT, RSW, www.lalobatraumarelease.com

How to Eat Mindfully

It makes sense that we actually have to set an intention to slow down as we pick up our fork. We’ve all scarfed down a meal and not long after feel like we swallowed a bowling ball. Recognizing physical fullness is part of mindful eating and ditching dieting. Ideally, you can gift yourself 20 minutes to eat mindfully, the time it takes to register fullness. If you only have 5 minutes, make them mindful minutes. Create a speed bump on your plate by taking a moment to visualize what half of your serving looks like. Once you are half done put your fork down for a moment. How full are you? Place your hand on your belly if it helps you connect. If you’re still hungry continue eating slowly and mindfully, until you feel physically satisfied. The goal is NOT to eat less, it’s to FEEL GOOD!

Lisa Kehler, Off Your Plate Nutrition, www.offyourplatenutrition.ca

Float Your Way to Happiness

People generally have heard about floating by the terms “pods” or “tanks,” and start to feel claustrophobic. Float “Cabins” are different. Float Cabins come as large as four feet wide, eight feet long, and nearly seven feet high, and they are easily accessible easy to come out of with standard swing or sliding doors. Within each float cabin, 10 inches of water is infused with up with 1,000 pounds of dissolved Epsom salts, this makes the water extremely buoyant. With the option to remove light and sound, you experience the sensation of floating through space. Other options include the ability to play your own music and enjoy colour therapy as well. Floating regularly helps reduce physical and mental stresses on the body. The brain gives out alpha waves associated with meditation that allows the body to recover from stress and relax. Floatation therapy is a simple way to invest in your own health and happiness.

Fluid Float Studio, www.fluidfloat.com

Have You Tried Kefir?

Kefir is a unique cultured dairy product and one of the most probiotic-rich foods on the planet. Drinking Kefir has incredible medicinal benefits for your digestion and gut health. It’s tart and refreshing flavor is similar to a drinking-style yogurt, but it contains beneficial yeast as well as friendly probiotic bacteria found in yogurt. The naturally occurring bacteria and yeast in combine symbiotically to give superior health benefits when consumed regularly. It is loaded with valuable vitamins and minerals and contains easily digestible complete proteins. For the lactose intolerant, kefir’s abundance of beneficial yeast and bacteria provide lactase, an enzyme which consumes most of the lactose left after the culturing process. Drink up for benefits to your immune system, your bowels (see you later, IBS symptoms!), and your bones. It helps fight allergies, improves lactose digestion, supports detoxification, and even kills candida.

Disability Tax Credit, www.disabilitytaxcreditwinnipeg.com

Positive Mental Health is a Laughing Matter

While living with mental illness is no joke, laughing for positive mental and physical health seriously works. In fact, evidence supports the claim that a joyful heart provides a similar benefit to that of medicine. Although not considered a replacement for medical treatment, some doctors are using laughter as an adjunctive therapy. In the short and long term, laughter has been shown to, 1. Stimulate/boost the immune system; 2. Alleviate pain; 3. Reduce anxiety and stress; 4. Reduce depression; and, 5. Promote a sense of hopefulness. What if you don’t feel like laughing? No problem, fake it until you make it. Physiologically speaking, for the most part, your body doesn’t know the difference. And, faking it often leads to the real thing which may be exactly the health supplement you need to get to the positive side of negative circumstances.

Sean Miller, Canadian Mental Health Association, mbwpg.cmha.ca

Book Club: Big Magic Creative Living Beyond Fear!

Empowering author Elizabeth Gilbert asks us to embrace our curiosity and let go of needless suffering. She shows us how to tackle what we most love, and how to face down what we most fear. She discusses the attitudes, approaches, and habits we need in order to live our most creative lives. Whether we are looking to write a book, make art, find new ways to address challenges in our work, Big Magic cracks open a world of wonder and joy.

Did You Know?

Blue corn has been popping up as an ingredient everywhere from tortilla chips to breakfast cereal. New research suggests that anthocyanins, the nutrients that give the corn its blue color, may help protect against metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer!

www.newhope.com

Clean Eating: Spaghetti Squash “Mac ‘n’ Cheese”

Ingredients:

1 large spaghetti squash

3 tbsp coconut oil

3 tbsp spelt flour

2 cups unsweetened almond milk

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp onion or garlic powder

pinch ground black pepper

1 cup (4 oz) any hard cheese, shredded.

Red pepper flakes, to taste. Preheat oven to 375ºF. Wash squash, cut in half lengthwise and remove seeds with a spoon. Place cut side down on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 40-50 minutes. Let cool and separate into strands with a fork. Preheat medium pot on low-medium heat and melt oil. Whisk in flour and milk until smooth. Add salt, onion powder and pepper; whisk and let simmer for about 4 minutes or until sauce has slightly thickened. Add cheese and whisk again until smooth. Add squash and mix gently with a spoon to combine. Cover and let squash warm through for about 5 minutes. Enjoy!

www.ifoodreal.com

Let’s do More “Firsts” this Valentine’s Day

Let this be your “First” Valentine’s Day where you celebrate you! Buy yourself flowers or treat yourself to a fancy meal. Do whatever it is that brings you joy! Firsts and/or exciting experiences create a new neural pathway and releases dopamine in the brain. As these pathways develop, it creates a new map of how we think. Many rewards like chocolate increase the level of dopamine. This sounds like a win-win – chocolates and new things to try! While experiencing things for the first time can be fun, there are a few more things that you can do to increase dopamine. Even things like accomplishing a to-do list; listening to music you really like; eating certain foods. Exercise is another large one, along with being creative, and no surprise – meditation. Recording your achievements toward a goal, like drawing a big heart on your calendar, releases dopamine. Here is to more “Firsts” in your life this year!

Patty Parsons, www.parsonstherapy.com

The Connection Between Your Eyes and Your Ears

As we age, we’re more susceptible to hearing loss and vision changes. Both conditions can creep up on us, making preventive measures essential to sustaining the quality of life we’re used to. According to the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB), you’re at greater risk of social isolation and reduced community participation if you have a vision loss. The same goes for hearing loss. Having both a vision and hearing problem can affect your ability to lip-read, which is detrimental to communicating with co-workers, family, and friends. A decreased ability to socialize is linked to a greater risk of dementia. However, Statistics Canada reports that 90 percent of people with hearing loss can improve communication with a properly fit hearing aid, counseling, or environmental changes.

Lisa Reid Audiology, www.lisareid.ca

Take Care of Yourself!

Self-Care is something that most of us forget about. We are so busy with work, family activities and all the demands of the day-to-day that we forget to take time for ourselves. We usually remember self-care only when we are already burnt out or sick, and then we have no choice but to take time out for ourselves. If we could only somehow incorporate some “me” time in our weekly activities. Pencil in an appointment with yourself even if it is only for a half hour. Sign up for an exercise class or meditation class once a week to help with stress. Maybe a painting class or dance or crafting class could help you unwind for a bit and change the scenery for you. And if it resonates with you, then make a point of going on a regular basis to relieve stress and to feel the therapeutic effects the therapy can do for you. You Deserve it!

Rositha Jeanson, RCRT/teacher, Balance and Harmony, www.rositha.ca