Author: hyftechnologies

Sharing and committing to support each other’s values calms rocky waters and sets the stage for happiness and growth in relationships.

While you can’t be responsible for someone else’s behaviors and values, you can help to create an environment that makes relationships work better. Gaining and maintaining rapport establishes a bond or connection that improves communication. Sharing and committing to support each other’s values calms rocky waters and sets the stage for happiness and growth in relationships.

You can gain rapport by matching and mirroring someone – in other words, communicating in a similar style, to make it comfortable for the other. By giving the person back their facial expression, voice tonality, body posture, word choice or breathing pattern, you connect with the other person on a deep level. Discussing values comes easier when you have rapport. Ask questions to find out what’s important and why, so you can support them, and reasonably expect their support, too. Make your needs and wants understood too, so you can be supported in pursuing what is important to you.

Scientists tell us that much of our self-talk is negative, so learning to be kind and supportive in your mental chatter is a direct step toward a well mind. Practice saying constructive things to yourself, like “I’m a good person, today’s going to be a great day, I can do this,” simple stuff like that. One of the most powerful tools you can use is saying affirmations, positive statements spoken aloud daily that focus your mind and establish a consistent tone of empowerment.

Visualizing or imagining a desirable future helps to promote wellness by creating feelings of excitement, fun, and positive expectancy. It also sensitizes us to anything we come across in real life that reminds us of our vision, so we start to pick up on distinctions we might otherwise miss. There is even considerable evidence to suggest that visualization influences what happens, but one way or another, using your imagination is a constructive habit that adds to the wellness experience.

Setting goals can be very helpful, to focus the mind on productive activities and enhance self-esteem and personal growth. Success is a frequent by-product of a well mind, since the energy used to deal with mental and emotional issues can be reclaimed and reinvested in more fulfilling outcomes and achievements.

Meditation and prayer are useful wellness habits, too. Getting quiet inside and connecting with your higher self, or more formally giving thanks and appreciation to your Maker for your many blessings, are tried and true for adding to the wellness equation.

Watching your nutrition also contributes to mental and emotional wellness. Sugar and caffeine may make you edgy, but often dehydration causes psychological unrest, so drinking sufficient water is a crucial wellness habit. Vitamins and minerals play a major role in mind function, so a well-balanced nutritional regime, with lots of high water content foods like fresh fruits and vegetables, aids your body chemistry and enhances your psychological condition. Also, avoid foods with high concentrations of hormones, antibiotics, or additives, which may irritate your nerve system and cause symptoms.

Physical activity is essential for a wellness lifestyle, and it has a profound positive impact on your perception of reality. Breathing, stretching, or walking can both stimulate and relax you, and more vigorous activity like aerobics, running or weight training keeps your machinery operating at peak efficiency. Programs like Body For Life by Bill Phillips that incorporate exercise, proper diet and an optimistic outlook are likely to promote wellness between your ears as well as around your midsection.

Alignment is the missing link of wellness psychology – alignment of physical structures like the spine and nerve system work hand in hand with alignment of the thinking, values and beliefs, to formulate the best possible internal environment, leading to optimum function and physiological freedom.

People who practice wellness typically enjoy their lives and want them to last as long as possible. That’s why the wellness mindset usually accompanies other constructive, healthy lifestyle habits. By adopting positive behaviors like: eating well, exercising, saying affirmations, developing healthy self talk, structuring a healthy system of values and beliefs, creating functional and fulfilling relationships, and balancing physical, mental, emotional and spiritual energy, you build a foundation of wellness that preserves a well attitude, wellness driven lifestyle choices, and a positive overall experience throughout life.

By following these steps, you not only extend your life, but you extend your quality of life deeper into later life. This is the ultimate objective of wellness psychology – to have the best life possible for as long as possible.

Healthy people express themselves consistent with their personality types, so there is a wide spectrum of normal behaviors that could contribute to achieving wellness. The technical end of wellness psychology encourages normal responses to the challenges of life, rather than just treating mental and emotional conditions. Understanding the concept of personality makes this approach clearer. For example, people tend to have patterns of behavior, some of which work better than others, but the patterns usually persist until they are broken or replaced. Noticing these patterns and evaluating them to see if they are constructive or destructive, and shifting the patterns accordingly, make wellness more accessible.

There are many ways to group or evaluate personality types. People tend to favor one of the three major ways the brain processes – visual (seeing), auditory (hearing), and kinesthetic (feeling), and each group has common patterns of behavior. Or, you can divide people by personality style, such as: drivers, expressives, analyticals, and amiables. You can notice typical behaviors, known as metaprograms, such as moving toward benefits or moving away from consequences, or having an internal or external frame of reference. There are more technical systems of personality also, like Myers-Briggs or the enneagram, which offer a deeper understanding of personality and can help create a pathway to personal growth.

Why is personality important? Healthy people express themselves consistent with their personality types, and those types vary greatly, so there is a wide spectrum of normal behaviors that could be considered well behaviors. Knowing yourself, and understanding others you have a relationship with, can give you insight into the unique nature of your personality. You can also understand the likely patterns of health, so you can choose the actions that support wellness for someone of your personality type. Patterns of personality also provide clues for wellness professionals to intervene in a way that is custom-tailored for the needs of each individual. This guides the person toward a well state and even amplifys their health, wellness, and peak performance through personalized wellness counseling.

Most men carry a wallet in their back pockets and in many cases it can be over a half an inch thick. Sitting on a half inch wedge for hours at a time over a period of years is one of the most overlooked causes of spinal misalignments and spinal pain including back pain, neck pain and even headaches. Our recommendation is to clean out your wallet and carry only what is really necessary. An innovative new product that has a unique patented designed and can reduce the size of your wallet by over 50% is called the TPK Back Saver Wallet, we like to think of it as The Wellness Wallet. Its unique thin design allows for it to be carried in your front pocket instead of your back pocket restoring the natural tripod effect of your spine when you are seated. You’ll be amazed at what a difference it makes.

Another important wellness essential product is an ergonomically designed backpack. It is amazing how we can put thousands of pages of data onto a microchip smaller than the eye can see, yet kids are carrying backpacks that are heavier than ever filled with text books. Many schools are taking away kid’s lockers making the problem even worse. Some kids carry backpacks with 40% of their body weight or more. You can see them walking to school leaning forward to offset the weight on their backs. Until schools figure out a way to make the loads lighter, we recommend that you get a backpack that is designed to help you stand up straighter. Our favorite is the AirPack Backpack designed by Core Products because of its patented shoulder straps and inflatable lumbar cushion which when properly adjusted redistributes the weight from the shoulders and upper back into the hips promoting a healthier upright standing posture.

Most people spend close to two-thirds of their life in shoes, so wearing shoes that fit well is very important. Our feet endure tremendous pressures daily. For example, an average day of walking brings a force equal to several hundred tons on your feet. Feet are subject to more injury than any other part of the body, underscoring the need to protect them with proper shoes. Here is a quick guide to selecting the right shoes for your feet.

• Always have your feet measured while standing
• Always try on both shoes, and walk around the store in them
• Always buy for the larger foot; feet are seldom precisely the same size
• Don’t buy shoes that need a ‘break-in’ period; shoes should be comfortable immediately
• Don’t rely on the size of your last pair of shoes as your feet may grow
• Shop for shoes later in the day, as feet tend to swell during the day
• Select a shoe with a leather upper, stiff heel counter, good cushioning, and flexibility at the ball of the foot
• Try on shoes while you’re wearing the same type of socks or stockings you expect to wear with the shoes
• If you wear prescription orthotics, you should take them along to shoe fittings

Your feet are the base that your body stands on. If your feet are weak or have structural problems, this can lead to problems in your knees, hips and low back, and can even cause headaches. Many people wear orthotics because they are good for their feet, but orthotics are even more important for those who experience pain after extended walking or standing. The most popular brand of orthotics is Foot Levelers. Foot Levelers, Inc. has been in business for over 50 years. When ordering orthotics, a cast or mold will be made of each of your soles. Some doctors have started to use high tech digital scanners. At least 16 different measurements of your feet are taken to ensure that your feet, and therefore your foundation, are more firmly supported. Please note that the orthotics and insoles that you buy at your drug store are not the same as the high quality orthotics that you can have custom made, even though they look similar. Insoles may effectively reduce pressure by increasing the padding under your feet, but orthotics are customized and provide a foot-bed that is molded specifically for each of your feet based on their unique shape and size. Customized orthotics are also a worthy investment. Ask us whether we think you need orthotics or not.

Every person should cleanse the system of toxins and let the digestive tract rest at least once each year. Cleansing is one of the most direct and effective ways to improve your overall health quickly. Free radicals and toxins can build up in your body over time and may cause fatigue, poor immune function, sleep disturbances, aches, pains, and low energy. There are cleansing programs and supplements available that help the body repair and remove toxins from the body. It is generally recommended that you contact a nutrition professional when choosing a program.

One component of nutrition that deserves significant attention is essential fatty acids (EFAs). EFAs cannot be produced by the body and therefore must come from the food we eat. They are the main structural components of our cell membranes, and keep our cell walls healthy by allowing nutrients to flow in and toxins to flow out. The three main essential fatty acids are Omega 3, Omega 6 and Omega 9. Most people consume enough Omega 6 and 9 fatty acids in the form of vegetable oils. However, we are often deficit in Omega fatty acids that come from foods such as flax seed, fish and borage oil. Omega 3 fatty acids are known to help with cardiovascular, joint and skin health, and to improve mood. Supplementing daily with an EFA capsule or liquid oil is essential to properly nourish your body.