Category: The Collective

Destress and Breathe and Exercise

slow controlled breathing can help lower your heart rate, your blood pressure and ease anxiety

Can breathing exercises help strengthen the lungs against Covid- 19?

As per an article from aarp.org, strengthening the lungs with deep breathing is good for pulmonary health by clearing out the lungs to help reduce the risk of infection and pneumonia.  Exercise does the same thing.  Aerobic exercise helps to keep your heart, lungs and circulatory system healthy.  Aerobic exercise means with oxygen which includes brisk walking, swimming, running, cycling, dancing any form of exercise that elevates the heart and forces oxygen into the lungs.

So does exercise and deep breathing protect you against Covid 19?  Experts cannot totally agree, but according to research Covid 19 attacks the lungs and if deep breathing and exercises are beneficial to increase lung health, why not do them?

Slow controlled breathing can help lower your heart rate, your blood pressure and ease anxiety. 

So, take another breath and relax or go for a walk.

 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air ( not without purpose) But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection (discipline)…1 Corinthians 9 verses 26 and 27a

Yet To Be #14

We always doubt God and think He does not answer fast enough.

As for God, His way is perfect: the word of the Lord is tried: He is a buckler to all those that trust in Him. Psalm 18 verse 30

We always doubt God and think that he does not answer fast enough. We want to tell Him what to do. We become so impatient. We forget that He is in control.  How simple it would be to just hand over the reins to Him and enjoy the ride. (Vicissitudes of Life, 2007)

While Waiting for Normal Again

best to stop stressing out and relax because this too will pass

“In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.” Proverbs 3 verse 6

Hey, while the world is still tackling this pandemic and your favorite places are closed, or you can’t meet with family or friends, it is best to stop stressing out and relax, because this too will pass.

We all experience stress in life, because it is a normal part of life.  Stress is the body’s reaction to any change that requires an adjustment. (Clevelandclinic.org) The body can react physically, mentally or emotionally.  Physically, the heart and blood pressure can increase, emotionally or mentally, anger or depression can set in.  Most reactions can leave a negative impact on the body which can be temporary or long term, leading a person to seek some kind of treatment, good or bad. 

This pandemic is taking a toll on some people. A year long stressor like this breaks down the mind and body, chipping away slowly, daily, moment by moment until there is nothing left that is familiar or even precious.

Every person deals with stress differently. Some people like to talk things out; there are counsellors or help lines to call and connect with a live voice, a person, a stranger who can listen.  Others like to exercise by going for a walk or a run or exercising indoors.  While some like to connect to others via computer, text or virtual meetings or just by calling someone to chat or others still like to playing games, reading a book, write a letter(snail mail) or sleeping, the list goes on. 

No matter the issue, the goal of this blog is to help you deal with stress positively, in a fun, simple and affordable way. 

First up:  

the Mini Spa

This Too Shall Pass

Hope springs eternal

“the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come…” Song of Solomon verse 11, 12

Winter time is cold and bleak as with life when there is sorrow things are cold and bleak. Yet, when winter passes there is the anticipation of spring as the harbinger of hope.

Someone reminded me today, “hope springs eternal in the human breast”. This famous quotation was taken from the 18th century English poet Alexander Pope’s An Essay on Man (1732).

When faced with adversity humans will try to hope for the best.

Comfort in Hope

Times keeps moving forward never backwards.

Time keeps moving forward never backwards. Life does not stand still for anyone in this world, no matter how hard the desire is to hold onto a good moment to savor it and to digest into memory, that moment passes quickly as water through the fingers.  Life at best is very brief. No matter how life is composed, whether made of good times, bad times, happiness or sadness it is moving forward. No one on this earth can stop time or turn back its cruel hands. But there is comfort in the knowledge of hope. 

Without hope we are most miserable.  Hope enables us to glance up and to look ahead and not behind, to see a promise of something that can be and as faith would gain strength, will be.

“…who against hope believed in hope…” Romans 4 verse 18 a    

Yet To Be #13

If we wait on the Lord, and keep our eyes on Him, believing and trusting Him we will be anxious for no thing.

“Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: Wait, I say on the Lord. Psalm 27 verse 14

The word wait implies to linger, to hang around, to kill time; yet sometimes it is difficult to just wait patiently.  We view everything in real time, it moves so fast that its difficult to catch up. You set your clock 15 minutes faster, but still you cannot catch up.  But if we wait on the Lord, and keep our eyes on Him, believing and trusting Him, we will “be anxious for no thing.” (Vicissitudes of life, 2007)

Yet To Be #12

We cannot hoodwink God.

“If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean; yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me.”  Job 9 verse 30, 31

God sees the heart.  The sweet smile, soft words, tears when these emotions are not true but superficial (shallow and insincere).  God knows even when we are deceived by these own impressions. We cannot hoodwink God. (Vicissitudes of Life, 2007)

Yet To Be #11

Hope never dies

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  1Peter 1 verse 3

Hope means expectation, desire, something to look forward to; hope never dies. Christ is our hope. Mercy means compassion, forgiveness, kindness.  God has granted these favours on us – He sent His son to die for us. He raised His son from the dead so that we can live forever. (Vicissitudes of Life 2007)

Yet To Be # 10

God cannot and will not tolerate sin.

“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth. Revelation 3 verse 7

Judgement and justice belong to God. God is holy. We speak about His love and compassion- which we experience everyday, but we, most of the time forget His governmental hand. He cannot and will not tolerate sin. (Vicissitudes of Life, 2006)

Yet To Be #9

God frowns on these characteristics for God is love

“In the same day, also will  I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit?”  Zephaniah 1 verse 9 KJV

The implication of talebearers is present; these are people who stir up trouble. It reminds us that the “tongue is a fire, and no man can tame it”. Deceit which means dishonesty, deception and pretense causes divisions and separation. These characteristics should not present themselves in the house of God, among the people of God or in our daily lives.  God frowns on these characteristics, for God is love.  (Vicissitudes of Life, 2007)