The Importance of Sulfur, Especially As We Age

As we get older, our skin begins to wrinkle and droop a little, and our muscles and joints become a little less flexible and harder to stretch. We probably just put this off as normal aging, but it is also obvious that not everyone ages at the same rate. So why do we age at different rates, and is there anything we can do to rig the game? Some of it is indeed genetic, but there are nutrients that we can make sure are in our diet to help us age more slowly. Source

Kathy Andersen: 4 Steps For Getting On The Right Side Of Success

Kathy Andersen: 4 Steps For Getting On The Right Side Of Success

Is Your Definition of Success Making You Unsuccessful?

Do you wake up each morning feeling inspired, passionate, and purposeful in your life, knowing that you have set your life on a path toward "authentic success"?

If not, perhaps you need to redefine success in your life in a way that is attuned to the uniqueness of who you are, and all that you are here to be. "Changing your shoes," stepping outside of your life, observing it with new possibilities, and creating your "authentic success affirmation" can be your first steps to bringing "authentic success" into your life and leaping out of bed each morning!

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded." Our lives count toward that "one life" lived, because we have an obligation to honor our lives, as much as the lives around us. "Love thy neighbor as thyself" is explicit in that command.

The question is, how do we enable ourselves, and those around us, to "breathe easier" and experience our greatest and most authentic successes? How do we not get lost in looking for "success in all the wrong places," and end up with achievement but not fulfillment? How do we experience wealth as abundance in our being, not only in our bank accounts? How do we redefine success so it is filled with substance and not superficiality?

The origins of the word "success" are found in the Latin word "successus," meaning "advance, succession, happy outcome." Yet, to what or to where are you advancing? What "succession" and legacy are you creating? What makes you truly happy? What will be the impact on the greatest vision for your life, and on your contribution to the world?

The answers are found in committing to take steps each day that allow you to breathe your authenticity into the world, in the pursuit of your perpetual magnificence, not your temporary materialism. Without that pursuit, you clip the wings that enable you to fly to your greatest heights.

Steps to Achieving Authentic Success:

1. Change Your Shoes!

Take off your shoes and stand barefoot in your life. Think about the shoes that represent "success on the outside," yet don't make you feel comfort, wellness, happiness, and freedom on the inside.

1. Write down the successes "on the outside" that don't necessarily "fit" you on the inside.
2. Write down what success would look like on the outside if it were inspired by what brings you to life on the inside -- your authentic success. Think about the feelings you most want to experience every day, what you want to express in the world every day, the most purposeful legacy you would like to create -- the most meaningful impact you want to have in your life and in the world.

2. Step Outside Your Life!

Leap outside of your life and elevate yourself to a higher platform from which you can see yourself standing in the world. Are you taking responsibility for where you appear in your life and in the world? Do you see other places you wish to be?

1. Write down how you see yourself from your higher platform. Describe what you see around you, and what is missing around you. Describe what you sense is complete within you, and what is missing within you.
2. From your higher platform, and guided by your inspiration, passion, and to where you wish to purposefully "advance," what guidance would you give to yourself?

3. Allow New Possibilities for Your Life.

Often we become stuck in the "shoes" we wear every day. The comfort of our habits keeps us from the happiness that comes from leaping into new possibilities. Unless we step into new shoes and onto new paths, we remain stuck in the same place, in the same circumstances.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

In order to "go" onto those paths, you need to find the shoes that can take you, and then you must choose to leap. You must allow yourself to try new shoes and take new paths. It is your choice. It is your life. It is in your hands. It is waiting now.

1. Write down the new possibilities you would like to create for your life, guided by your passion and purpose.
2. Write down what "authentic success" would look like in your life as those possibilities become realities.
3. List the first steps you need to take, and then identify just one that you can take today. Take it today. Then tomorrow, take the next. Keep listing and taking those steps for 30 days to create new habits that will take you along paths to your most authentic successes in your life.

4. Create Your "Authentic Success Affirmation."

The key to continuing to travel on the path to your authentic successes is to keep affirming all you desire within you to manifest those things in the world around you. Create your "authentic success affirmation," and keep it with you. Each morning, in the middle of your day, and before you sleep, read your affirmation aloud and feel its presence in your life.

Answer the following to create your authentic success affirmation:

1. Which three feelings do you most want to experience every day in your life?

1. ___________________
   
2. ___________________
   
3. ___________________

2. Which two words describe how you would like to most purposefully affect the world around you each day? For example: inspire, empower, influence, teach, heal, help, etc.

1. ___________________
   
2. ___________________

3. Write a phrase describing the world you would most like to create. (Don't hold back!)
___________________________________________________________________________

Finally, combine the answers to 1, 2, and 3 above, to complete your authentic success affirmation:

I feel (1) ________________, __________________, and __________________
as I (2) ___________________ and ____________________ myself and others
to create a world in which (3) _________________________________________________ .

Click here to be guided through Kathy's accompanying HuffPost GPS For The Soul.

To experience a deeper, personal journey on the path to your authentic success and transformation, trial Kathy's award-winning book, Change Your Shoes, Live Your Greatest Life, here.

For more by Kathy Andersen, click here.

For more on emotional wellness, click here.

Follow Kathy Andersen on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Kathy_Andersen

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Dr. Michael J. Breus: Lack Of Sleep Disrupts Our Genes

Dr. Michael J. Breus: Lack Of Sleep Disrupts Our Genes

Insufficient sleep is related to a range of health problems, from diabetes and cardiovascular disease to depression, poor immune function, and cognitive decline, particularly in later years. For all that we know about the health risks associated with lack of sleep, we actually don't know a lot about exactly how poor sleep contributes to poor health. The mechanics of the relationship between sleep and disease remain little understood.

New research may offer some important insight into how sleep affects heath. A new study indicates that poor sleep can significantly disrupt and inhibit normal gene activity in hundreds of genes. The genes affected help to govern broad and important biological functions, including stress, the immune system, inflammation, metabolism, and circadian rhythms. A team of researchers led by scientists at England's University of Surrey examined the influence of sleep on gene function and found that a week of low sleep altered the activity of more than 700 genes. The study was collaborative effort among specialists in sleep science, genomics, physiology, and bioinformatics.

The study included 26 adults whose sleep was monitored for two weeks. During the first week, participants sleep slightly fewer than six hours per night, less than the recommended seven to eight hours. During the second week, they slept 8.5 hours nightly. After the conclusion of each week, researchers took blood samples and analyzed them to identify any changes in genetic activity. After controlling for other factors, including exposure to light, activity levels, and food, the results showed that a single week of insufficient sleep had a dramatic effect on gene activity:

• Low sleep altered the activity of 711 genes.
• The total number of genes affected by sleep increased by seven times after one week of sleep deprivation.
• Many of our genes rise and fall in activity in accordance with our body's 24-hour circadian clock. A week of insufficient sleep reduced the total number of genes that rise and fall in line with circadian rhythms from 1,855 to 1,481.
• Sleep deprivation also diminished the amplitude of the rise and fall of some of these circadian-aligned genes.

The genes affected by sleep deprivation help govern circadian rhythms, metabolic functions, and sleep homeostasis -- the regulation of sleep itself. These are genes connected to immune system functioning, inflammation levels, and stress responses. Previous research has shown that disrupted sleep is indeed strongly associated with health problems related to these biological functions:

Circadian rhythms. In recent years, we've learned a great deal about the importance of our circadian rhythms to health. Sleep itself is one of the many essential biological functions governed by our 24-hour circadian clock. Disruptions to circadian function are associated with a range of health problems, including psychiatric disorders, dementia, metabolic disorders such as diabetes, autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, and cancer.

Metabolism. Disrupted sleep is also strongly associated with metabolic diseases, including obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes. Studies have shown that sleep problems can predict the future development of metabolic syndrome, a disorder that is associated with higher risk for diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Sleep is a critical factor in healthy weight control, and sleep deprivation is strongly linked to obesity. And there is a great deal of research to indicate that poor sleep increases the risk of diabetes, perhaps by contributing to insulin resistance.

Inflammation. Inflammation in the body is linked to a long list of health problems, including cardiovascular disease, chronic pain, diabetes, and cancer. Insufficient sleep has been linked to an increase in inflammation. This study showed people who slept six or fewer hours per night had higher levels of inflammation than those who slept between six and nine hours nightly.

Immune system. Research has also shown that sleep plays a role in immune system functioning. Numerous studies in recent years indicate that disrupted sleep, as well as too little sleep, may compromise healthy immune activity. This recent research found poor sleep to be as damaging to the immune system as stress.

Stress. Stress response is another biological process affected by the gene disruption found in this latest study. The relationship between sleep and stress is complicated. Stress can interfere with both the quantity and quality of sleep, as this study shows. And insufficient sleep can have negative effects on the way we respond to stress. Research shows that low sleep is linked to hormonal changes that can affect stress response. Studies also show that healthy sleep works to ease the emotional sting of difficult memories. Lack of sleep may inhibit our ability to process difficult emotional experiences, prolonging periods of stress and anxiety.

There's an abundance of scientific evidence linking sleep to these and other health problems. But we're just scratching the surface of understanding the underlying pathways by which sleep influences health. Understanding more about how sleep affects genetic function holds great promise in illuminating these pathways and could open important new avenues for both treatment and prevention of illness and disease.

Sweet Dreams,
Michael J. Breus, Ph.D.
The Sleep Doctor™
www.thesleepdoctor.com

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For more by Dr. Michael J. Breus, click here.

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Source: www.huffingtonpost.com