Health tips for women

 

Celebrating Women’s month I thought it would be nice to post some easy health-stroke-beauty tips that we can all make use of because we’ve all got mouths!

Yes—mouths!

What’s the easiest thing you can go with your mouth – smile – right?

I’m always going on at people to smile at random strangers, but every time you smile, the action of your face muscles smiling causes your brain to trip a little trigger and release chemicals called endorphins.

In a nutshell, endorphins are the things that make a person happy… this leads to less stress… and ooh, let’s think, when you are less stressed you stop scrunching up your face and pow! There go those lines on your forehead. (Of course, they’ll come back again when you stop smiling and start being stressed again, so just keep smiling.)

So… smiling at random strangers does not only make them feel better, but you are giving yourself a boost too. How cool is that?

It gets better…

Endorphins are sneaky little critters, because they are also the body’s natural pain killers. Next time you bash a bit of your body, instead of swearing, yelling and being miserable—LAUGH.

Laugh long and loud and all those endorphins will be released and that sore bit will feel a lot better, much sooner.

This works for chronic pain too, believe it or not… either way – try it – you’ve got nothing to lose.

We all know, from previous experience of having a good belly laugh that you end up gasping and breathing great lung-fulls of air. Well… that is the same as having exercise! Your lungs expand and the cells in your body get replenished with oxygen – it’s not rocket science people – makes perfect sense.

A smiley face is also sooooo much more attractive than a miserable looking one, right?

Start looking at the funny side of life – it’s not hard.

  • Read cartoons
  • Watch funny movies and You-tube clips
  • Spend time laughing with friends and family.

Here’s the really funny bit… our brains, whilst being very clever, don’t actually know the difference between whether a smile is a real one… or a fake one. So there’s no excuse – just smile anyway. You’ll still feel all the fabulous benefits.

We women don’t mind sharing this great tip with you men either… start smiling and stop snarling!

You’ll find once you start smiling—it becomes a habit.

Sibo

xxxx

Listen to hear what is NOT being said.

I read something incredibly interesting the other day… research has shown that people who are in happy relationships or who have lots of friends live longer than those folk who are alone.

Duh! One tends to think that is obvious because they are probably happier and more fulfilled than those poor lonely souls who have nobody to talk to.

Originally they thought that individuals were responding to interesting topics or that it was the more stimulating conversations that possibly sparked off something in a person that made them live longer.

But ultimately it seems that WHAT is said does not really matter. It is more about HOW the other person responds to what is being said.

It all boils down to that human touch of caring, really listening and responding appropriately.

There are 3 different ways of responding to a statement that somebody has made.

If Jack says “It’s so nice outside tonight!” What he really means is something like – I enjoy being here with you.

If Judy replies “Yes, it’s lovely isn’t it!” She actually means she enjoys being with Jack too! This subconsciously makes Jack (and Judy) feel all warm and fuzzy and loved.

But if Judy says “Rubbish! The mozzies are biting me – I’m going inside!” this sends the message that she does not enjoy sitting outside with Jack and would rather be inside. This does not make Jack feel all that great.

Or worse, Judy could just ignore Jack totally and walk inside – leaving Jack feeling subconsciously sad and unloved.

Obviously the first response is going to nurture and deepen your relationship.

All too often we see somebody we know and, as we pass by, we say “Hey! How are you?” but then keep walking and don’t stop to hear their answer. This inadvertently sends the message that we don’t actually care how that person is.

Try something out – next time you ask somebody how they are – stop and actually listen to their answer.

It boils back down into that kindness pot again. In this busy world, it’s so easy to be self-centred and self-involved, but all it takes is a little bit of concentrated time to make another person feel loved.

Try it out – you’ll find it makes you feel good too!

Sibo

xx

Do your own science tricks

Just because National Science Week is now finished it does not mean that you have to put science out of your mind until next year. Remember, science is all around us all the time and it is very cool. Without it, we’d be living in the dark ages.

Thought I’d share some interesting tricks that I found in a little booklet that was distributed by SAASTA many years ago. Can you believe that you can wow your friends by making fireworks with a naartjie?

All you need is the skin of a nartjie, a candle (in a holder), matches or a lighter – and maybe you should keep some water close by too – in case somebody gets so excited that they set fire to something.

Remember – whenever you do a science experiment, no matter how simple it seems, you still need to be careful.

Light the candle. Take a piece of naartjie skin and fold it in half while holding the orange (outer) side of the skin a few centimetres from the candle flame.

See what happens… cool hey!

What does happen?

There are many little “bags” containing oil in a naartjie skin. The oil, which is responsible for the specific naartjie smell, is flammable. When you fold the skin, the little bags burst and spray the oil into the candle flame. The end result is a little sparkling mini firework show!

If you don’t have any naartjies you could try this experiment with a lemon or an orange and see what the result is.

Or you could make a flower bloom. All you need is some paper, pencil, scissors and a bowl of water.

Draw a flower on a piece of paper. Cut it out and fold the petals up. Lay the flower on the water in the bowl and watch it open up and bloom.

What happens? The paper gets soaked with water and expands. The petals open and the flower appears to bloom.

You could make all sorts of flowers – for everybody! Try it out.

Science really is fun!

Sibo

Friends are Fabulous

The 30th of June is International Day of Friendship.

I’m reminding you nice and early in case you need to make a plan to make a plan to get together and have a lunch date or something, or even just to remind yourself to call somebody.

Friends are good for a person’s heart and soul. Literally!  But friendship is very much a two-way thing.

One has to give as much as one gets – and I don’t mean “stuff” here either. I’m talking about time spent together, laughing, sharing experiences, chatting and more importantly, listening to the other person. Really listening to hear – and not listening to talk when they’ve finished speaking. Often friends just need to talk to somebody that they know really cares about them – they don’t want to hear how the same thing happened to you.

If a friend tells you a juicy secret, don’t go blab it out to the world in general afterwards. That’s not what real friends do.

Research has shown that people who have lots of friends are much more likely to survive a major illness than somebody who has no friends. This is because the loving support (both physically and mentally) of friends helps a person get better

Companionship is also known to reduce stress. People, who are married to a person that they both love and are friends with, are more likely to stay married. (Yes – it’s very possible to love somebody and not like them very much!)

In your life time, you’ll probably make around 396 friends, but according to research, only 1 in 12 friendships last and of those, only about 4 will be really close friends.

These days, with social media – it’s easy to think you have loads of friends, but this is not always the case. Next time you meet up with your friends, put your cell phones away and talk properly to each other, instead of chatting via text messages.

Amazingly enough, scientists have also discovered that there are animals – like dolphins, bats, chimps, baboons, elephants, horses and… wait for it… hyenas that have been known to form friendships for life with individuals that are not the same species. (I was quite surprised to see that they did not mention dogs and cats – specially seeing as how they have bonds with their humans.)

Remember people… in order to have a friend, you have to be a friend!

Sibo

Families are precious

The 15th of May is International Day of Families.

Sometimes, if one comes from a big household, it is easy to think that families can be a bit of a pain and actually lose sight of how incredibly lucky we are to have them. Many people are very sad because they either don’t have family or they have moved far away and they never get to see them.

If you have not spoken to a  family member whom you love dearly for a while…  why not pick up your cell phone and send them a WhatsApp or sms to tell them that you are thinking of them (or even better – call them) or write a letter. You could even make plans to go and visit them.

Don’t take people for granted. You never know when something might happen and you’ll never see them again.

Talking about families, the 14th of May is Mother’s Day.  Yup – that’s this Sunday. Still time to do something if you have forgotten about it.

Our Mothers really are special people. They do loads of stuff that we just expect and half the time never even bother to thank them for it. They are always there for us and sacrifice plenty for their kids and families that we never even think about.

If you are a tad financially challenged and don’t have money to buy your mum something special, you could make her a card and give her some special vouchers. Things that say you’ll “wash the dishes” or “make her a cup of tea or coffee” or “sweep or vacuum” or do something else that helps her out… then she can hand you a voucher at a later stage and you will do the chore with a smile on your face and no whinging!

Seriously – mums very much appreciate things like this.

It’s the little things that have to be done day in and day out that get really tiresome. And while you are about it – you could keep your room neat for a change, pick up any stuff that you leave lying around the house without her having to ask and nag.

Give her a fat hug too and tell her that you love her and appreciate her. You don’t have to wait for Mother’s Day to do this either!

To all the mums out there – we love and salute you. Thank you for everything.

Sibo

A lucky girl

Mum and I got home the other day and our little neighbour dashed up to chat to me. She’s such a cute kid and always has funny things to say.

That particular day I noticed that her toe was all smooshed.

“Khanyi” I exclaimed, “Whatever did you do to your toe?”

She shrugged and answered that she had fallen and hurt it. I told her that she should be more careful with her little toes in future – they were not big enough to mess with.

“But I’m always unlucky!” she sighed. “I am forever falling and hurting myself.”

Mum and I looked at each other.

“Noooo…. You can’t say things like that! You have to think of yourself as being a lucky girl. If you think about being unlucky then that just attracts bad luck. Tomorrow you are going to have a good luck day. No more bad luck!”

But she just shrugged and said… “I’ll try – but I’ll probably have another bad luck day.”

We went inside and I felt sad that she is so little and yet she already has such a negative attitude.

Dad is always telling us about the law of attraction. Our minds are the most powerful things that we have. If we decide that we are going to have a good day – then we probably will.

But you, yourself, really have to believe this one hundred percent.

You can’t think in wishy-washy terms. You have to tell yourself that you are going to have a good day. Then you have to envision having a good day. The power of thought!

Of course, in my case it’s pretty simple. I envision eating a nice cold ice-cream at school. Then I take some of my pocket money to school and buy one. It’s a simple as that. The ice-cream man is there, the weather is good for eating ice-cream and I don’t lose my money. Everything works.

Or I see my maths paper in my mind’s eye with a nice big A+ on it. Or course I know that I’d put in a lot of work beforehand and could reasonably expect an A+.

Nothing worth having ever comes free or easy. We probably would not appreciate it if it did.

And on the odd occasions when you do fail, you have to pick yourself up, dust yourself down and try again.

Hope you all have a simply fabulous day! (Go on – imagine yourself having a fabulous day.)

Sibo

Smile awhile

Sibo smilingHey everybody!

Hope that you all are enjoying the holidays or what’s left of them.

I was in the shops with my mum one day last week and was horribly bored. I’d much rather be out in the sunshine, digging in my garden or doing other cool stuff than trawling around a stupid mall. But my mum likes going shopping. My dad is one sneaky dude – he usually manages to avoid going with mum. He always has urgent “other” stuff to do.

Anyway, I was sitting on a bench watching people and do you know – nearly none of those people were smiling. Everybody had various different looks on their faces. Some looked worried. Some looked sad. Some looked cross and some looked so angry their eyebrows were nearly smouldering into their noses.

It was rather interesting. Even most of the kids were stomping along with faces like thunderclouds. I could hear some whinging that they wanted things that they were obviously not getting.

There was an old auntie standing on the other side of the walkway asking for money. She smiled at everybody who dropped some coins in her cup and thanked the people.

But most of those people did not even look at her again.

A droopy looking young lady walked passed and looked at me. I smiled sweetly at her.

Immediately she smiled back.

Ah hah! An experiment. I love experiments.

I tried smiling at more people. Big smiles and little smiles. Most people smiled back at me.

When mum came out of the shop I smiled at her.

She looked at me. “Oh oh Sibo!” She said. “What have you done now? Why are you smiling like that?”

I wiped the smile off my face and put on my hurt look. “Mum!” I exclaimed. “I was smiling at you because I love you. I have not done a single naughty thing. I promise.”

I did not consider experimenting smiles on people as being naughty.

She looked a bit doubtful and then she smiled back at me. “I love you too Sibo,” she said.

I took her hand and we walked off, smiling at all the people we saw.

Let’s make the world a happier place and smile more.

……………………..

Cool word for the week: Agitated

Meaning: Feeling or appearing troubled or nervous.

Example: A whole lot of people were looking very agitated because the shop had run out of chocolate eggs.