Best Time of the Day for Passion, Creativity, Tough Tasks, Breaks, Collaborations and more.

Dance with your brain's natural power hours and you will naturally re-energize your day.

Sorry. I promised to post this info Friday but the bug continued … turns out I had some weirdo infection that required anti-biotics. Once again I am thankful to be a modern American woman.

In the “good old days” most of us were dead by forty, often due to something as innocuous as a sinus infection – if we survived childbirth. Then I am a happy American woman because there is no other country in this world where women enjoy such freedom, opportunity and respect. I celebrate all of this everyday. ( I had to explain those 3 words to another girlfriend today.)

Now … about the “Best Brain Time of the Day for Passion, Creativity, Tough Tasks, Breaks and Collaborations and more.”

Research by Lynn Hasher, PhD, a psych professor from the University of Toronto, indicates we are wired with ranges of brain power during the day. She suggests we work with this natural rhythm to be more productive and feel happier, more satisfied and energized.

I have been trying this out during the past week and I LOVE the schedule. Here is the “bottom line” scoop.

7 to 9 AM
Best time for … Passion
Take time to bond with your spouse and whisper sweet nothings in his ear and caress his bod. (May I add that I read somewhere that most couples are more than satisfied with a 7 minute “quickie.”)

9 – 11 AM
Best time for … Creativity
Take on projects that require creative problem solving or a fresh imaginative direction.Best time for analysis and concentration.

11 AM to 2 PM
Best time for … Tough Tasks
Tackle “chores” like errands, website updates, bill pay, emails, problem solving with your partner (business, significant other). Good time for presentations to clients.
(I am writing this piece during this time!)

2 to 3 PM
Best time for … A Break
Great time to take it easy and digest your lunch, morning and early afternoon accomplishments. Take a stroll with your, pray, meditate, stroke your purr friend, read something inspirational and unrelated to your work. You could also try one of my 15 minute “Power Problem Solving Naps.”

Just get comfortable. You can put your head on a desk like in grammer school or lay back in your lazy chair or couch. Dlose your eyes and put your problem out “there” in a “what do I need to do to …” or “how can I …” format. Nine times out of ten I wake up with a divinely inspired solution! You will too.

3 to 6 PM
Best time for … Collaboration
By this time of the day the brain is pretty tired. You won’t be as “sharp” but an easy-going and flexible attitude is perfect for conversations and collaboration. Also 1 + 1 = 3.
Use this time to join forces and create new, fun opportunities!

6 to 8 PM
Best time for … Personal Tasks
There is apparently lots of energy during these hours for “to dos” like cleaning rooms, cooking delicious meals, writing notes, dashing through errands.I’ll confirm this when I am totally recovered from this infection! This is the time, by coincidence?, that my husband and I packed away Christmas last night.

8-10 PM
Best time for … Relaxation
It is time to unwind and starting getting in the sleepy head zone. Take a walk with your dog then slip into a hot bath with Epsom salts, lavender essence oil and a paperback. If you’re going to watch TV make it something light, entertaining and comedic. Do something repetitious like knitting or sewing.

If you have trouble sleeping, click here for what works for moi.

10 PM Onward
Best Time for … Sleeping
This is the time to end your day on two up notes.

Journal: Write down 3 accomplishments for the day in your journal. If you are one of those Type A Perfectionists who never thinks anything is good enough! I’ll give you three of mine to use. Ready? …
1. Got out of bed; 2. Did my best; 3. Gave thanks for another day of life.

Inspired Reading: read something inspirational. I often end my day with 2 or 3 Catherine Ponder Pages, a Bible passage or another reading selection that lifts and relaxes my spirits.

There you have it. Eight distinct braniac times of the day and the best ways to use them to be more productive, balanced and energized. Use them to add joy to your day, everyday. And, if this has been helpful please forward the link to a friend.

There is no duty we so underestimate as the duty of being happy. By being happy, we bestow anonymous benefits upon the world.
- Robert Louis Stevenson

(c) Viveca Stone-Berry 2009

For more information on this topic: Synch Up To Your Brain's Power Hours By Sara Reistad-Long http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24650466/wid/11915829/

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Special Thank to the Keys to Weight Loss Blog for posting this super interesting interview with the authors of "Body Signs From Warning Signs to False Alarms ... How to Be Your Own Diagnostic Detective.

Not only is it fascinating but it is sooooo true. Tired women symptoms are so subtle, so under the radar. We need to pay attention to what our bodies are telling us so we can help ourselves and help our docs help us.

Click here to Learn to listen to your body and watch this video interview. Click below for more information and to order your copy of "Body Signs."

Life Keeps Getting Better with Terry Hernon MacDonald

There is a feeling that comes along with fatigue. Well, there are quite a few actually.

One of my least favorite was hopelessness. That feeling that no matter what you do or don't do you will never really feel like your old self. The self that was tireless, funny, enthusiastic and high on life. Remember that super woman energetic you?

My friend Terry taps out a daily blog that never fails to lift my spirits and, where the spirits go the body is soon to follow.

Here is a post from Terry Hernon MacDonald, founder of Happy Girl Musing. It is titled "Life Keeps Getting Better." Enjoy.

We've all heard the garbage about a woman over age 35 meeting a decent man being about as likely as her dying in a plane crash. Yesterday, I met yet another woman who defied that nonsense.

She's 53, positive-minded, active, and an enthusiastic newlywed, but she could have been a real sad sack. She had plenty of cause to feel sorry for herself. In April 2007 (11 months ago), she was hit by a car and told she would ever walk again.

Doctors said they'd have to amputate her right foot. She refused to believe them.

Call it faith in God, call it the Law of Attraction, call it whatever you want: She determined that a power mightier than modern medicine created her and would heal her foot. She would walk again.

Do I need to tell you that she did not lose her foot? That she was walking fluidly-- without a limp -- 11 months later? Now, I can't say what her foot looks like under the sleek high-heeled boot she wore; she did say it's been fortified with pins.

But whatever it looks like, it's not stopping her. As I said, she's newly married and clearly enjoying life. I wish I'd had the chance to ask her about her new husband, especially how she met him.

My guess is she did it the same way she healed her foot. She surely wouldn't be the first person who succeeded in meeting the man of her dreams this way.

To learn more about Terry why don't you tune into my interview with her on the "Secrets of Attraction." You are gonna love to hear what she has to say ...

How to talk to your doctor

I found this step-by-step "How to Talk to Your Doctors," by About's Guide to Panic Disorder, quite complete. Right now this is exactly what my husband and I are doing! We've been working with a homeopath to help him heal from chronic migraines and acid reflux. This teamwork approach vs. fix me is working GREAT.

Here's How You Do It:

Preparation is essential. Before your appointment, write a list of all questions and concerns you have. Between appointments, keep a sheet of paper to write down questions as they come to you.It doesn't have to be a question. If you can't put a concern into question form, don't be afraid to discuss it. Just start with, "I don't understand why..." or something along those lines.

Keep a record. Keep an ongoing journal, list or simple page of notes on how you're doing -- the good and the bad. This may include side effects, new symptoms, progress, setbacks, or thoughts you have from day to day.

Keep everyone informed. Make sure all of your health providers are aware of your total treatment: including medications, the other health providers, and self-help methods.

Bring someone with you. If it helps you feel less anxious to have a friend or loved one with you, then do it. You may decide how much access you want the person to have (such as coming for the whole appointment or waiting in the waiting room).

For the rest of this checklist by Cathleen Henning Fenton, click here

Unhappy, Unhealthy Relationships are exhausting.

Get it right the first time, or this time with ...

Marry Smart: How to Attract and Marry the Man of Your Dreams by Terry Hernon MacDonald.

If we could just marry smart the first time, or next time, we would avoid the heartache, fatigue, anxiety, pain and suffering that goes with a broken or disappointed heart.

If you are getting ready for love, or ready to love again, STOP and order Terry's book. She teaches you the secrets to attract and marry the man of your dreams! Click here to learn more about this love guide.

By the way, Terry was one of Viveca's first relationship advisors and a favorite guest on the Get Ready for Love Show. Terry's formula worked for Terry, Viveca and thousands more.

BONUS: Marry Smart: How to Attract and Marry the Man of Your Dreams includes Terry's
"Attract True Love Tele-seminar." Terry tells you how she walked her talk (Secrets of Attraction) to attract and marry her husband. You're next.

STRESSED out? Unhealthy Responses to Stress only make it worse.

5 Of The Most Common Stress Monkey Habits and how they affect you:

If you tend to deal with stress in less-than-healthy ways, you are compounding the negative impacts of stress on your health by exacerbating the stress levels and creating new problems in your life and health. The following are some common unhealthy ways of coping with stress, along with some of the negative effects of each, and ideas on how to curb or change the bad habit itself or lessen its impact.

Bad Habit #1 - Consuming Too Much Caffeine: (Yep, did this one.)

Multitudes of people enjoy a daily caffeine intake, as evidenced by the extreme popularity of Starbucks and other coffee houses. And while the occasional coffee isn't going to do you great harm, it's important to remember that caffeine is, in fact, a drug, and it's possible to have a full-blown caffeine addiction. More likely and common, however, is caffeine dependence, where people use caffeine to jump-start their energy in the morning, use it throughout the day to stave off a `caffeine crash', and then find their sleep disturbed by caffeine, causing them to wake up tired and need the caffeine jolt to get going again the next day. As the cycle continues, caffeine affects stress levels as well. If this sounds a little too familiar, here are some resources to help kick the caffeine habit.

Bad Habit #2 - ... What could it possibly be? (I did this one too. first thing in the morning, all day long, last thing at night.)

Eat This for Better Blood Sugar and Energy Balance

Eat This for Better Blood Sugar a.k.a. balanced energy throughout your day.

Question for you. When you want to grab a blood-sugar-balancing snack, which is better:
a fresh apple or a slice of rye toast?

Answer. Go for the bread -- as long as it's whole grain.

Getting about 17 grams of grain fiber a day (the kind found in whole-grain breads and
cereals) could slash type 2 diabetes risk by a third, research shows.
And rye bread seems to steady blood sugars best.

When it comes to preventing type 2 diabetes, controlling blood sugar
is what it's all about. And fiber keeps blood sugar nice and steady,
so you don't get glucose spikes that send your pancreas into
overdrive.

For more on this topic, click here

Psst. Feel like a piece of burnt toast throughout the day? Or maybe your brains feel like scrambled eggs? You might be suffering from adrenal fatigue. Take our free Fatigue Questionnaire at http://fatiguebegone.com/tired_woman_quiz.htm to discover the true causes of fatigue.

Act as if it were impossible to fail.

"All that is necessary to break the spell of inertia and frustration is this: Act as if it were impossible to fail."– Dorothea Brande

Reminds me of another saying, "In a bacon and eggs breakfast the chicken was involved but the pig was committed."

Perhaps today - NOW - is a good time for you to take action and commit to your health ... you are just 8 easy steps away from feeling GREAT.

The 10-Minute Energy Solution and Parenting with Fire

I happened to stop at Border's Books today and scored with a couple cool finds ... they both address the mental and emotional factors that trigger fatigue and how to boost energy and recover from fatigue.

"The 10-Minute Energy Solution" A Proven Plan to Increase Your Energy, Reduce Your Stress, and Transform Your Life." I'll give it a go and let you know how I like it ...

"Parenting with Fire - Lighting Up the Family with Passion and Inspiration." I bought this one with a girlfriend in mind ... is there anything more tiring, draining and demanding than a teen-ager? O.k. maybe a newborn. She has both - yikes!

Anyway ... part of my point here is to encourage you to never stop learning, growing or making the time for inspirational reads and "ah has" in your life. For an expanded listing of my favorite reads and resources, just click here ...

Friendship re-Energizes Women -- Proof!

UCLA STUDY ON FRIENDSHIP AMONG WOMEN
By Gale Berkowitz

A landmark UCLA study suggests friendships between women are special. They shape who we are and who we are yet to be. They soothe our tumultuous inner world, fill the emotional gaps in our marriage, and help us remember who we really are. By the way, they may do even more. Scientists now suspect that hanging out with our friends can actually counteract the kind of stomach-quivering stress most of us experience on a daily basis. A landmark UCLA study suggests that women respond to stress with a cascade of brain chemicals that cause us to make and maintain friendships with other women. It's a stunning find that has turned five decades of stress research---most of it on men---upside down.

Read the rest of the article: http://www.womeninbalance.org/pdf/Friendship.pdf

And, don't forget to be your own best friend ... Order your copy of the Fatigue Be Gone! Jumpstart e-Guide today to review, renew and re-Energize all of you! Click here for more information http://fatiguebegone.com/fbgguideinformation.htm

Bodywork and Massage Therapy

Do you want to explore your ABCs?

Swedish massage, deep tissue work, healing touch, bioenergetics, acupressure and reflexology are just a few of the bodyworks I’ve experienced since falling in love with the physical benefits and affordable pricing offered by local massage therapy schools. Want to explore your options?

Price. You can pay full retail at a fancy salon or enjoy a hefty “win-win” discount when you check yourself into a massage therapy school.

Click here for the rest of the story ...

Addiction Related Fatigue

Being driven by your own addiction OR living with the addiction problems of another is exhausting emotionally, physically, spiritually and financially. I know 'cause I did both!

I didn't think I was an addict. It was him. Then I got help and uncovered my addiction to fixing him and over working and over doing most areas of my life. The 'ol takes one to one a.k.a. if you spot it you got it!

You can get a healthy perspective on this topic at one of my favorite watering holes for Internet interviews, Heal Yourself Talk Radio. Click here to tune into the Jack Singer Show hosted by Rebecca White. I also recommend you listen into the "Nice Girls Interview" with the authors of Anxious to Please 7 Revolutionary Practices for the Chronically Nice.


Know this -- You are not alone even if you feel that way. The shame that goes with addictions is isolating BUT trying to solve the unsolvable all alone does-not-work. Click here for resources and connections.

Kudos to Michael Moore & Mike Huckabee

Kudos to Michael Moore & Mike Huckabee for bringing the topic of "self-health" to the American Public. This is a discussion we need to have and NOW is as good a time as any.

Now for individual Kudos -- First to Michael Moore for suggesting:

1. We would have better medical care in Cuba then we do in the U.S. and that

2. We should pour time and money into creating a Cuba-like socialized medicine machine.

SICKO reminds me to keep eating better, getting more exercise, stretching at night, drinking 8 glasses of water a day, cutting back on sugar, elimination "white" and educating myself on health and nutrition. It drives me to nag (oops! encourage) my husband to do the same. I don't want to be a part of his system.

Then kudos to to Mike Huckabee for having the guts to STATE that health is OUR responsibility and not something that will be fixed "if only" we had better medical care.

Don't get me wrong. I Love - I value and am grateful to a number of doctors who helped me, saved my mother and brother's lives, etc.

However I've spent years looking for solutions to unsolvable chronic conditions including asthma, migraine headaches, candida and, of course, chronic fatigue. If there was a pill I could have popped to solve any of these I would have done it BUT having to find, feel, work and research my way back to health made me a stronger, healthier person. Had I waited on congress - on the "system" I would be dead by now or, at least, a Sicko.

Michael Moore has millions and billions of $$$. He can afford the best health care. He can even fly to Cuba to get more. So, obviously great health isn't for sale. It is about the little, daily habits and actions we take to better ourselves. All the kings horses won't fix what we tear down if we aren't willing to do the footwork ...

Don't count on a government program to heal you. Don't wait for something or someone "out there" to change your chronic health condition. Be the change you need.

Mike Huckabee gets my vote. I am even going to send him a campaign contribution and a free copy of my Fatigue Be Gone! Guide. (Do you have yours?)

What say you?

Fatigue & Colds - Is there a connection?

I was just asked about remedies for the common cold. Interesting because I was planning to write about the connection between fatigue and mental overload ...

According to one of my teachers a cold indicates:
"Too much going on at once. Mental confusion, disorder. Small hurts" and fatigue indicates:
"Resistance, boredom. Lack of love for what one does."
Louise Hay, Heal Your Body

Me - I am doing lots of things at once -- experiencing mental confusion and not loving much of what I am doing! I am preparing to move - spending hours "on hold" making arrangements and filling out forms. Then I've been worrying about everything flowing smoothly ... I haven't even started pack yet!

So -- my remedy for the "cold" and the "fatigue" is to take-it-easy and either do less or choose to be less bothered. Frustration and overwhelm is as much a choice as being relaxed and enjoying the sunset ...

I do have one receipt for colds - a tea that I concocted years ago. Just the thought of it cures me!

The Cold Cure Brew: Bring water to boil is a sauce pan and add a pinch of Cinnamon; a pinch of cayenne pepper; a pinch of nutmeg; a pinch of sage; a pinch of ginger and a pinch of black pepper. Turn the heat down to low and let it brew for 10-15 mins then pour yourself a cup, slip in a couple Cinnamon sticks and sip away.

These are common spices that should be in your cupboard. This brew will raise your body temperature, increase your circulation and move that cold right on out!

Suppliment Your Health

I was paying $100/month for my vitamin and supplement packs. I assumed they must have everything I needed ... not so.

When I got around to actually reading the ingredients I found out that I was not receiving my daily recommended allowance of Magnesium and ... the list went on.

Take a moment today and read your fine print. Know exactly what you are taking and supplement your supplements as needed!

To Forgive is to Heal

It is an immutable mental and spiritual law that when there is a health problem, there is a forgiveness problem. You must forgive if you want to be permanently healed.
-Catherine Ponder, The Dynamic Laws of Healing

What do you need to heal? Who do you need to forgive? For more inspiration on this topic go to:
http://www.GetReadyForLove.com/forgiveness

An inspirational & omnious little ditty ...

Doing a little spring cleaning today - including some old "memo books" and I came across this little ditty ...

Those who think they have no time for healthy eating will sooner or later
have to find time for illness.
- modified from: Edward Stanley (1826-1893), The Conduct of Life.

Well - I for one am up for more healthy eating & a gentle cleansing. Last fall Michael & I did a togetherness cleanse and we felt GREAT! in time for the holidays.

It was easy - at least to remember. Nothing white (rice/bread/sugar) * lots & lots of vegies * any kind of meat * light on the fruits and those 8 glasses of water a day.

Anyone want to join us? Drop me a note!

Self-Help - Help yourself - reach out & touch somebody!

Self-Help: How To Reach Out & Touch, literally.
Massages, Musings, Girlfriends & More

According to Researchers at Duke and the University of Arizona the number of true confidants that Americans say they have in on the decline. In fact, since the 1980s, it has dropped from about three to about two. And, about a fourth of Americans say they have no confidents outside of their families - twice the percentage of two decades ago.

Translation? Americans are increasingly cut off not only from emotional support but from the therapeutic benefits of physical touch as well. Humans, not just Americans, are pack animals. We are "hard-wired" to thrive in social, touchy feely environments. Studies have proven that a simple hug – a little touch – not only lowers output of cortisol, a stress hormone, but triggers a surge of our two “feel good” brains chemicals, serotonin and dopamine.

Click here to read all about it.

Read All About It

I've put up some articles that may be of interest to you. And they are:

Massage Therapy Training is for People Who Care About People

Self-Help: How to reach out and touch, literally
Massages, musings, girlfriends and more

Anxiety is not a mother's best friend
3 Ways to Journal "It" Away

When I get back from my family reunion aka "The Wedding" I will pop out a couple more. Until then, remember that Easy-does-it is oh so Energizing ...