Less Stress

As I have watched the Dr. Oz show off and on, I have found some useful tips I'd like to pass on a more importantly, remember myself.


His 4 big ideas to have less stress in your life were:

1. Discontinue Caffeine


2. Cut back or discontinue sugar intake


3. Add Vitamin C to your diet


4. Increase Endorphins by: Exercising, Meditation & Deep Breathing

How interesting. Eating right has always been a challenge for us in America. God created food from the ground for us to eat, but why do we always seem to go for the highly sugar added, fried in grease, chemically processed or enhanced with preservatives food? Oh how good it would be to eat only the good things for me. I look forward to eating more from the land we live on each year. Next year we plan to plant fruit trees to eat from and sell at our Farmer's Market in Springfield.

Then there is adding that Vitamin C. I believe that a person needs to get out in great outdoors and get the serotonin from the sun every day. I find it so rewarding and encouraging to my mental health to get outside with God's living creation daily. Thanks Lord, for the great property you allow us to care for. I pray you will give us the means to pay for the extra $800 each month we are going to have to pay in taxes this next year. YEP, our property tax in Sarpy County, NE went up 333%. Talk about taxation with out representation. Pathetic.

Okay, back to the list of stress relievers that I desperately need this year. Hmmm, endorphins increase. Did you know making love to your spouse increases endorphins that produce a healthy body? Yep. And about the meditation, what about daily prayer, memorizing the word, studying the word and just "Being still and knowing that HE is God." I think meditating on his word is a very useful practice to understanding God's will, and lining up with it. When I first learned how to meditate on his word several years ago, I was amazed how God gave me direction, comfort and peace in knowing and completing his plan. He also gave me the "next right thing to do," each day!

And to think people are all in a flurry about how wonderful Yoga is these days, like it's a new practice for great health. I think God designed a perfect idea for great health. Meditating on his word makes so much more great sense compared to the Eastern Religion idea of emptying your mind and finding peace from within. God tells us always to renew our minds. Romans 12:2 "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."

I must take time to reduce stress by renewing my mind right now! Add deep breath here - in through the nose and out through the mouth.