Two Breathing Exercises That Will Reduce Stress Immediately

By Sherrie Aldrich

If you are like me, sometimes the daily hectic pace of your life leaves you feeling as if you were so stiff and achy that you are a statue. Your shoulders hurt, your back aches and it is only a matter of time until the inevitable headache begins.

Muscles tighten because of inactivity, prolonged sitting in one position, excessive workouts, and a whole host of other reasons. Exposure to cold weather can also cause muscle tightness as muscles contract when you are cold creating warmth. This leaves you feeling nearly immobile and uncomfortable.

So what can you do? There are two breathing exercises that work like a charm. These can cause your body to relax and help you lose that tight feeling so that you can move more freely or fall asleep quickly.

The first exercise is just a deep breathing exercise. You want to lie flat and erase everything from your mind. Concentrate solely on your breathing. Take a deep breath and exhale. Do this 3 times. Now on the fourth deep breath, breathe deeply through your nose and hold it for 10 seconds. You can count in your mind or aloud by reciting one one thousand, two one thousand, etc. At the end of the 10 second count, slowly exhale through your mouth for a 10 second count. Now breathe normally for 10 seconds. Then repeat the deep breathing through your nose for 10 counts, holding it for 10 counts and then slowly exhaling through your mouth for 10 counts. As you continue to do this, you will feel your stress and tension melt away as your body slows the pace of everything including muscle contraction.

The second exercise is a more involved deep breathing exercise that involves your whole body. You are going to lie flat and get as comfortable as possible. Now you close your eyes and you begin to concentrate on your body. You simply breathe deeply, exhale slowly and begin to focus on first one part of your body at a time. I begin with my feet. This is like willing the muscles all over your body to cooperate and it works!

You direct all of your attention to your feet. You begin by continuing the breathing exercises and focus solely on your feet, willing them to feel calm, relaxed and at rest. You continue your way up your body, moving next to your legs. Because you are breathing and thinking of nothing but your body and your muscles, you will feel the tension start to evaporate. You will feel your muscles become more lax. It almost feels like you are in a hypnotic trance.

If you cannot lie flat, you can do this in the car or at the office. Just give yourself five to ten minutes of time that you can devote completely to your breathing and your body relaxing and you'll be amazed at how much better you feel!

Sherrie Aldrich is a freelance writer living in Ohio. http://www.incredible-ebooks.com

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Can Facial Exercises Save The Skin On Your Face?

By Sharon A Bell

You may have heard of facial exercises or perhaps you are doing one right now. These exercises are designed to zero in on the muscles on your face. The routines may include squeezing the lips for several seconds, raising eyebrows for a prolonged period, flexing the cheeks and opening and closing the eyelids intermittently.

Facial exercises are supposed to help you keep a firm skin on your face and avoid unwanted lines and sagging folds. Many people, women especially, are crazy about these facial exertions. In fact, some women go to the extent of ordering instructional videos just to learn the routines; that is in addition to the overflowing information about this subject on the Internet and various women's magazines.

Creators and believers swear by the effects of facial exercises in making the face look more beautiful and younger looking. Practitioners say that the concept is the same as doing grueling numbers of sit-ups and other abs workout to produce that chiseled and gorgeous tummy area; hence, if you want a better looking face, you better start doing workouts on your face area.

Skin experts, however, disagree. When asked if facial exercises really work, most dermatologists say that twitching and flexing all the vital areas on your face is not effective in toning the skin on your face nor is it forceful enough to eliminate wrinkles and unwanted creases. Unlike fat on your abs, where cutting back on food and doing sit-ups can be enough to tone the muscles in that area, skin problems on your face are more than just a muscular trouble.

To really know what will work on your face, you need to take a closer look at why all the spots and lines on your face exist. The following are the main factors that bring about all the spots and lines on your face. Failing to take them into consideration will turn your dream of attaining a more beautiful skin on your face into a big frustration. So here they are and pay attention.

Sun Exposure
The sun's rays can melt a lot of things. If you do not believe this, try exposing a bar of butter under the sun and in minutes it will all be liquefied. The same thing happens to your face when you over expose it to sunlight. Not that your face will literally melt; but moisturizing substances in your skin will be depleted. The next thing you know, you have broken down skin cells which will be visible in the form of wrinkles, age spots, and dark circles under your eyes.

Drop In Collagen Levels
Basically, the problems you are having on your face come as a direct result of losing your skin's elasticity. Aside from sunlight, age has a hand in making your skin lose its firmness too. But at the bottom of your skin's loss of elasticity is the dwindling level of collagen in your skin. If you want to fix your facial and other skin problems, you need to increase your collagen.

Facial Contortion
Believe it or not, the way you contort your face when you express your ideas or sentiments can cause wrinkles, fine creases and sagging on your face. If you tend to frown most of the time, expect that the skin in the middle of your brow line will have one or two deep ridges. If you have to squint your eyes every time you have to focus on something, then chances are you have lines that resemble crow's feet on the side of your eyes.

These three factors bring you everything that you hate on your face. And all the facial exercises that you do will not help you solve your problems because your workout just doesn't deal with these factors. So instead of facial exercises, doctors say, you should apply products that are especially formulated to fight off unwanted lines and sagging skin on your face. For your eyes, you can try eye creams like Eyederma to eliminate eye bags and dark circles. Visit www.eyederma.com for more details.

Sharon Bell is an avid health and fitness enthusiast and published author. Many of her insightful articles can be found at the premiere online news magazine http://www.healthnfitnesszone.com

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The Best Flat Abs Exercises

By Andrew Hoffman

People all over the world desire to have flat abs that are both sleek and sexy. Studies have shown that the number one looked at body part at the beach is the stomach area, so why not be proud of what you have?

I am going give you a few tips on how you can get flat abs. I am also going to pass along some myths that keep floating around about the ab area. I will finish with a few of the top flat abs exercises.

Okay, first, you need to know that over 90% of people that want flat abs will not achieve their goal because what they are doing is wrong. The biggest part of getting flat abs is not doing countless crunches and sit-ups. These do help, but the main problem that is going on is the fat on the belly. That fat is hiding a beautiful core that you want everyone to see.

So, the first thing that you need to concentrate the most on is to get rid of the extra fat that is on your ab area. You may look awesome everywhere else, and even look good in your stomach area, but there is a little bit of fat there that is hiding the true beauty.

You need to be concentrating on an exercise and diet that targets the abdominal area, and that brings me to my first myth. People thing that all of the diet foods and foods that are low on carbs and sugars are good to lose stomach fat on......FALSE! These foods are full of artificial sweeteners, sugar alcohols, etc that are shown to increase the amount of fat on your belly, so you are fighting a losing battle when you eat this stuff.

Instead try to lower your carbs naturally, eat organic foods, and drink plenty of water each day. All of these will really help you to get the flat abs that you are after.

You also need to avoid any kind of pills that are supposed to make you get this wonderful body. Most of these drugs have not been FDA approved, and may not even contain anything that helps you at all. The safest thing to do is to avoid all of them at all costs.

Now, exercising your abs should not be limited to crunches and sit-ups. You need to start using an ab ball, doing air bike crunches, crunches with weights, leg pull-ups, etc if you really want to see some results.

So, if you want the top flay abs exercises to work for you, you really need to know Truth About Six Pack Abs. Know what 95% of people are doing wrong.

Flat Abs Exercises - Get the Truth Here

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Easy Cardiovascular Exercises

By Jonathon Hardcastle

If we want to live a healthy life, largely free from disease and illness, it is essential to maintain two factors: a healthy diet, and a course of exercise. Within the diet criterion, everyone knows we should be eating fruit rather than a fruit pie, or potatoes rather than chips or fries. Everyone knows we should swap fizzy soft drinks for water, and we all know we could lose the odd bottle of beer here and there. But what about exercise? How should we go about exercising for the best results? How can exercise improve our fitness?

Exercise can be largely broken down into two classifications: cardiovascular training and strength training. If you want to improve your fitness, you must absolutely focus on cardiovascular training. Cardiovascular training is designed to get the blood pumping through your vital organs, leave your lungs gasping for air and increase your heart rate to its training RPM. This will all in turn burn through excess calories, and leave your physical condition in a much-improved state after time. If you're not a health fanatic and are just looking to shift a few pounds, you too could really benefit from cardio exercise to improve your physical capabilities and significantly reduce your chances of heart attacks and strokes in later life. So, now it's simply a case of fitting some cardio in around your busy daily schedule, which needn't be as hard as it sounds straight off.

If you work or go to school, how do you get there in the morning? If it isn't by foot, you could be missing out on a great way to cram in your daily exercise. If you work too far away to walk, try parking your car in a different parking lot, and walking a couple of blocks to get there. Small steps like these every day can have a great effect on your well-being. Another great idea is to ride a bike. Ride a bike to work instead of driving, and you're not only helping yourself, you're also helping the planet. A win/win situation.

You don't have to devote hours to going to the gym or the pool if you don't want to. There are loads of simple exercises - even doing housework - that can improve your cardiovascular fitness and help you lose weight. If you continue to push yourself, going that little bit further every day, you'll find in no time that your health will have seriously improved, in this will also show as lost inches round your waist and thighs.

Jonathon Hardcastle writes articles on many topics including Arts, Toys, and Arts

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