Category: Articles

Spending time in the garden boosts my mental health. Unlike a few years ago when I shunned the garden, now it is my favourite place to be on weekends, for no other activity engages me so completely while it revives my spirit. Exhausted after a rough week, some people head to the beach, some to the casino, others to the dance hall, church, the bar or the football pitch; for me it is different.

All I do is don my signature cap, coverall, and gloves, saunter to the back of my house into the garden and there, in the quiet of the evening, I am transformed into another person. Tiredness oozes away in this green space. Here I can taste the evening breeze off the hillside and smell the musty grass from yesterday’s mowing.  Right then my wrinkles disappear, my shoulders relax, my lungs fill with oxygen and there is nothing I cannot do. I feel invincible and sometimes even immortal.

I weed, prune, rake leaves, fertilize, set new plants, redo a bed, and design a compost heap; everything becomes possible and easy.  In my garden space the sky appears huge and embracing, and my mind learns how to be at peace.  My body, lean and once strong, conserves energy as I turn from the difficult task, to the easy ones, and back again to the difficult.   I feel as if I am engaged in the miracle of life with things happening all around me.  In the echo of nature’s silence, I experience living things grow: plants inch higher, butterflies flitter, insects crawl on and under the ground with the worms, and birds defend their young.

Amidst this cycle of life my garden multitasks like a miniature universe, filling my heart with gratitude and making me want to give back. In fact, the garden is a giving place; having received from the universe the miracle of fruits and flowers, it is a joy to set plants for the neighbour, share produce, and smile as your elegant anthuriums decorate the Church’s sanctuary.  On each bed, lettuce leaves neatly set like pages in a book, the gardener crafts his sentences with a salad of words.  Visitors would leave my garden with their baskets full.

 

MEDITATION PRACTICE 

The first stage of meditation is to stop distractions and make our mind clearer and more lucid. This can be accomplished by practicing a simple breathing meditation. Choose a quiet place to meditate and sit in a comfortable position. If you wish, you may sit on the floor or in a chair. Keep your back straight to prevent your mind from becoming sluggish or sleepy.

 

With your eyes partially closed, turn your attention to your breathing. Breathe naturally, preferably through the nostrils, without attempting to control your breathing. Become aware of the sensation of the breath as it enters and leaves the nostrils. This sensation is your object of meditation. Try to concentrate on it to the exclusion of everything else.

 

Attempt to resist the thoughts running around in your mind and remain focused on the sensation of the breath. If your mind wanders, bring it back to your breath. Repeat this as often as necessary.

 

As you practice this more and more, gradually your distractions will subside and you will experience a sense of inner peace and relaxation. Your mind will feel lucid and spacious and you will feel refreshed. The incessant flow of your distracting thoughts will become calm and you will be better able to concentrate on the breath. Stay in this state of mental calm for a while.

MEDITATION

   Nicole Benjamin de Perez, M.S.

With the hectic pace and demands of modern life, many people feel stressed and overworked. Our stress and tiredness make us unhappy, impatient and frustrated. It can even affect our health.

Do any of these symptoms of stress pertain to you?

• Regularly walking, eating or working in a rushed way.
• Regularly thinking and worrying about the past or future.
• Frequent tension in the body (especially neck, shoulders, back and stomach).
• Feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders.
• Emotionally on edge.
• Regular tiredness during the day.
• Significant need for outside stimulation to feel good (e.g., coffee, sugar, sex, TV, etc.).

 

Taking steps to relax body and mind (in addition to getting adequate sleep) can be enormously healing and is highly recommended for those interested in healing acute or serious chronic illnesses or preventing future illnesses.

 

Whenever we encounter a stressful event, our bodies undergo a series of hormonal and biochemical changes that put us in ‘alarm mode’. Our heart rate increases, adrenaline rushes through our blood stream and our digestive and immune systems temporarily shut down. If the stressors continue and we stay on high alert for a prolonged period of time, we experience exhaustion and burn out. None of us can avoid stress but we can return to a state of balance and regulation through a variety of means including meditation.

 

When practicing meditation, your heart rate and breathing slow down, your blood pressure normalizes, you use oxygen more efficiently and you sweat less. You produce more positive hormones, your body ages at a slower rate and your immune function improves.

 

When you meditate you bring together all the mind’s energies and focus them on a word, a sound, a symbol, a comforting image, or your own breathing. The optimal setting for meditation is a quiet, clean place. People typically meditate sitting on the floor or in a chair with their eyes closed.

 

Meditation involves both effort and passive participation. It takes effort to bring your attention back to your chosen focus but you also become simply a witness to everything that happens: random thoughts, sensory input, body sensations such as itches and cramps and external stimuli. As a result, you incorporate them into the meditation experience. All meditation practices involve the development of mindfulness – being fully engaged in whatever is happening in the present moment, without analyzing or otherwise over thinking the experience.

 

Meditation is wonderful because it is free; it’s always available and is amazingly effective in short-term stress reduction and long-term health. Benefits can be felt in just one session. Meditation has no potential side effects. People with physical limitations may find it easier to practice than strenuous physical exercise for stress relief and no special equipment is needed. However, it does take discipline, commitment and motivation.

 

KEYS TO WELLNESS– JUST FOR WOMEN

Wellness is the capacity to be and do what you want and be happy. What is on your wellness wishlist?  Today’s high-level women experience more stress than ever before.  They not only juggle clients, a staff, budgets, deadlines, making key decisions, and proving themselves among their male counterparts, they also have to manage a sometimes-hectic home life. Women need to find simple ways to achieve wellness by being a bit “selfish” with no regrets. If women trust the power of nurturing themselves, the rewards you get will empower you to do what comes natural – and care for your loved ones with more intensity than you ever thought you could muster.

 

Nutrition:   There is no shortage of information about what to eat. Low fat, low sugar, low carb…You can go crazy in the grocery store keeping up with the products touting they’re the next best thing you need to be healthy.  Instead, why not try to make one positive nutrition change:

• eat a power-breakfast daily like oatmeal with walnuts and fat free milk
• get your fruit fix by making a fruit and yogurt smoothie or adding fruit to lunch
• try something different like an unusual veggie (ackee, bora, calabaza) or cooking with beans.

 

Exercise:   If your ideas of exercise include time on the “dreadmill” and “personal draining”, you need to change up your exercise regime! The following exercise ideas involve some kind of commitment – and that’s what it takes to really nurture you toward wellness. Find something that sounds good and enjoy your new exercise endeavour!

• Try yoga – a moving meditation! Power yoga classes involve using your personal strengths to tone up.
• Dance your butt off, people are into dancing like never before. Try zumba, belly dancing, bollywood, ballroom or broadway jazz. Whatever your flavour, take a risk and shake it.
• Sign up for a walkathon, you don’t need to run a marathon to experience the exhilaration of getting a race number and crossing the finish line.

 

Stress Management:   Maintaining emotional health is so important for wellness. Most women tend to think they strive under stress, but they don’t realize the harm that comes with it when the walls close in. Women take on the burdens of others and then become overwhelmed themselves.  Stress triggers changes in our bodies and makes us more likely to get sick.  The key to healthy stress management is to let it all out every day.

• talk to someone, and let others know if you can’t take on the burdens of their stress (give yourself permission to be selfish and not listen once in awhile)
• find a quiet corner, relax and breathe to a slow count
• remind yourself that food didn’t cause your stressful situation and it won’t solve it either
• intimacy with your partner– what can I say, all those lovely endorphins will drown the stress out of your body and mind

 

Relationships:   Relationships are one of the core human needs. Take a minute and think about your relationships today:   How strong are your personal relationships?  How much effort do you put into them?

Are you getting out of them what you need or do you give too much with little in return?

Let go of what you don’t need and transfer the newly available attention to the relationships that really matter most. Those relationships allow the other keys to wellness fall into place. You can lean on people to support you in your nutrition and exercise efforts and when life’s stresses get to be too much, they can help you deal with it.

 

 

Healthy Women Are (a Little) Selfish

Everything is connected; nutrition, exercise, stress management and relationships all have a role in contributing to your wellness. Women cannot achieve wellness without the strong foundation of healthy stress management and the social support that comes with stable relationships. To attain wellness, being a little selfish is one of the most selfless things women can do.

 

By Denise Merkitch, M.Sc. ; Acknowledgement:  Rebecca Scritchfield, R.D.