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How To Care Better For Your Teeth

August 16, 2023 by Wendy S

Teeth can be something of a nightmare even at the best of times. No matter who you are or what your history is like, you probably find that you often struggle to look after your teeth as well as you know you should. That is something that most of us experience, and it’s just the kind of thing that you need to try and keep in mind if you are going to be able to have good dental health in the future. With that in mind, here are some of the main things to consider when it comes to caring for your teeth more effectively.

Learn A Proper Brushing Technique

It might be worth checking your brushing technique, because many of us learn a technique at one point that turns out not to be quite as good as it could be, and that can be a real problem in the long run. You might not actually be cleaning your teeth as well as you would hope, which means that you are not really making a difference to them at all in the long run. So make sure that you are learning a proper brushing technique and that you do all you can to make use of it in the future. It will make a difference.

Pic Credit – CCO License

Find A Good Dentist

Of course, having access to a good dentist is one of those things that can really help as well, and which you are going to need to make sure you are thinking about if you want to look after your teeth as well as you would hope to. When you have a good dentist on your side, it means that you are going to find it much easier to care for your teeth, and that you’ll have all the advice and guidance you could possibly need as well. This is of course a hugely important thing to consider here.

Get Them Straightened

Having straight teeth is not just a matter of aesthetics, although that is often an important part of this too. It’s also a fact that straight teeth are going to be considerably more likely to be healthy, because when they are misaligned that leads to all sorts of problems, including an increased likelihood of them falling out. This is therefore something that you will really want to keep an eye on, and get some clear retainers if it becomes obvious you might need them.

Pic Credit – CCO License

Find Your Motivation

If you are generally struggling to actually be motivated to look after your teeth, then you might want to think about what your motivation is. You might think about some of the results of not doing so – including even heart problems from gum disease as well as unsightly mouths – or simply think about how great you can look with a good smile. In either case, it’s something that you will want to make sure you are thinking about in some way or another.

Starting Your Gym Journey? Tips For You!

November 14, 2022 by Wendy S

It doesn’t matter what time of year you choose or at what point in your life you start going to the gym – what matters is how you approach it. If you haven’t been to the gym in a while or aren’t sure what you should be doing – make use of free guest passes like the ones they have at Fitness 19. This will give you an idea of their equipment, and you can chat with the people who run the gym there. You can see whether it is the right place for you.

Once you find the right place, though, here is how you can make the most of your gym time.

Photo bySven Mieke onUnsplash

Reps or form?

To get the best from your workout, the form you use will have the most significant impact. However, many new gym goers look at their reps rather than their form. Proper form will mean you get the best out of the workout and avoid injuries.

Ask a gym instructor or a gym buddy to help you get your form right – then, after that, move on to nailing the reps you have set as your goal.

Goals

While it is good to set a goal, your main goal could just be to feel fitter – and that is fine. Many people choose to set a weight goal, a reps goal, a distance goal, or others. Goals can help you stay on track for what you want to achieve. There are a couple of ways to track your goals. One of them is to take photos as you go.

Photos can be incredibly motivating because you can see the changes in your body. They say that most of the time, the people around you will notice the changes after a couple of months – but you might notice them much sooner if you track them carefully.

Workout journals are also instrumental because you can see the figures attached to your work. You’ll see the uptick of the weight you can lift, and depending on if you are bulking or losing, you will be able to track that too.

Nutrition

You need to feel your body has the right foods so that it has the right amount of energy to go into a workout and recover well. The foods you choose should be considered like fuel. Some foods will give you more benefits than others.

You don’t need to change everything you eat immediately; you can do it over time as you start to work out more.

Change up

Doing the same workouts every time you go to the gym will mean that, over time, you get bored – and that you might start to plateau because you don’t push yourself anymore. Every few weeks, change what you are doing. Work out a new muscle group, change the cardio that you do – anything that keeps you engaged in the workout process.

Time off

Even if you want to hit the gym daily to reach your goals, by doing this, you are likely to find yourself burning out pretty quickly. Your body won’t have time to recover between workouts, and you will be pushing tired muscles to perform their best. You’ll notice the difference, which can cause many people to feel like they aren’t making the progress they want.

Rest and recovery are two of the most important things for a good workout.

Never underestimate how vital cardio is when it comes to your workout, it has a long list of benefits: The Benefits of a Cardio Workout.

The First Five Steps to Better Mental Wellbeing

October 20, 2022 by Wendy S

Better mental wellbeing begins with you. There are professionals who can help. But you must be willing to recognize and address your situation in order to move forward with your health.

Man on sofa comforting a crying woman – Image Courtesy of Pexels

Reach Out to Professional Services

There are a lot of professionals who can help you with mental health problems. There is always help for mental health problems, from mild ones like anxiety to serious ones like personality disorders. For instance, the trained and caring therapists at the Toronto and Ottawa Psychotherapy Centre can help with a wide range of mental health problems. All you have to do to get the help you need is call, send an email, or send a text message.

Spend Time with Other People

Studies have shown that having good relationships at work is good for your mental health. By keeping in touch with friends and family and making those relationships stronger, you can build a group of people who can help you. Maslow says that this helps people feel like they belong and have value, which is high on the list of needs. Also, you can be honest with the people you trust the most and talk to them about your problems for the emotional support you need.

Learn Something New for Better Mental Wellbeing

You might think you don’t have time to learn something new. Or that you can’t do it or are afraid to try. Getting out of your comfort zone slowly is another way to deal with pain and mental health that can be used in many different ways. Also, learning a new skill can help you feel better about yourself and connect you with people who like the same things you do. You could do something like a do-it-yourself project, learn how to cook or sign up for a local college course.

Be Aware of Your Situation

Your mental health can get better if you pay more attention to the present. This would include your thoughts and feelings, your body, and the rest of the world. This is called “mindfulness,” which you might know if you’re a Star Wars fan. But being more aware can help you enjoy life more and find out more about who you are. It can change the way you see the world and help you solve problems in a positive and logical manner rather than ruminating into depression.

Use Your Time to Help Others

Recent studies have shown that about 40% of people help people around them on a regular basis. This could be done by listening, being a friend, or even giving money and food. But other studies have also shown that helping other people is good for your own mental health. It does this by making happy feelings a reward, mostly because of a balance of serotonin. But it can also make you feel like you have value to other people and help you connect on a human level.

Summary

Better mental wellbeing isn’t out of reach for anyone because there is always help available. But it begins by taking steps such as contacting professionals, learning new skills, or helping others.

How To Better Deal With Pain

October 10, 2022 by Wendy S

Pain is a fact of life – everyone is going to experience it in various forms throughout their lives, and this is something you can’t get around. However, it is possible to change how you approach it, so that you are going to make as much as possible out of the situation, and that is something that you should always be able to do. In this post, we are going to take a look at some of the better ways to deal with pain, so that you can reduce its impact on your life as much as possible.

Change Your Mindset

One of the most fundamental changes you can make is to change your relationship to pain as it occurs. If you are able to get to a place where you just see pain as the necessary information it is, useful data that you need to pay attention to, rather than some huge problem, then that in itself makes it a lot more bearable to deal with. Changing your mindset to this kind of approach is perfectly possible, even if it takes a while to achieve. It’s the kind of thing that you are going to want to think about working on right away.

Photo by JESHOOTS.com

Alternative Treatments

You might also be interested in trying out a number of alternative treatments that are out there to be sought after. There are so many of these that you would be forgiven for forgetting about some of them, but there are some that have been known to help people out a lot in the past, and which are therefore quite worth thinking about. For instance, you might find that the kind of acupuncture services offered at www.qitcm.ca could be a good solution for your long-term pain in particular, and it’s definitely worth trying out at the very least.

Gentle Exercise

In general, when you have hurt something in your body, the best thing is not to just keep it still entirely, but to move it gently a little. We used to think that you should keep it still, but we now know that this is the worst thing to do. Instead, you should get some gentle exercise with the area, ensuring that you don’t push it too hard or too far, but generally making sure that you are engaging with it in a small way. That helps it to recover, and it actually works through the pain sooner too.

Photo by Engin Akyurt

Controlling The Breath

Your breath is one of the most powerful tools you have for managing pain too. If you are able to control your breathing as best as you can, it’s going to help you manage how your pain feels, so this is definitely something to think about. In particular, deep breaths are always important for overcoming your pain, so make sure to avoid shallow chest breathing when trying to get rid of pain in your body. That is a simple thing you can do which really makes a huge difference.

Feeling Stressed: When Should You Listen To Your Body?

May 26, 2022 by Wendy S

Stress is a normal human reaction to experiencing something difficult, confusing, and sometimes even a little traumatic. It helps us to keep our heads on straight during those moments when we don’t know what to do, and in the days when we were hunter-gatherers, it would have kept us vigilant and awake during those dangerous moments!

But in the modern world, the stress response isn’t all that useful. Rarely are we in need of adrenaline spikes just to commute in the mornings, and the resulting toil can be very hard on our bodies! Of course, stress can still be helpful in small ways, like ensuring we perform to the best of our abilities, but it’s so easy for that feeling to tip over into nerve-wracking territory.

But when does this tip occur? When should you listen to your body when you’re feeling stressed? Here are a few signs that shouldn’t go ignored.

Photo by Anna Shvets

When a Full 8 Hours Does Nothing for You

Getting plenty of sleep is one thing, but is the quality of your sleep good enough? Are you waking up multiple times a night? Are you tossing and turning? Do you even struggle to fall asleep in the first place, and take hours to get there? These are all signs that you’re stressed and the level is reaching its peak.

Cortisol, a hormone released when stressed, can prevent you from getting good sleep every night. This chemical keeps you from feeling relaxed and like you could fall asleep any moment – it’s there to wake you up and keep you awake, like you would need to be when stressed. So when stress builds up over time, more and more cortisol is released, and you lose sleep because of it, and on and on the cycle goes! Simply put, if you can’t sleep, it’s time to do something about what’s getting you feeling so high strung.

When You’ve Got a Headache You Can’t Shift

Stress can cause us to overload, and nowhere is that more true than in our muscles. We can be tense for hours on end when we’re stressed, without even realizing it, and that can leave us with muscle pains, headaches, and even a bad migraine. And when you’re actually experiencing physical sensations because of stress, it’s time to sit back and relax and try to shake some of that weight!

Indeed, a lot of people will turn to self-medicating in an instance like this; it’s easy to just pour yourself a glass of wine to help dull the ache when you get home from work in the evening. However, always indulging to beat back pain can cause a habit to form, and in the worst-case scenario, it can lead to an addiction.

In turn, your stress levels might lead you to need substance use treatment, which just complicates the matter even further. Above all else, if stress is leading you to feel physical pain on a regular basis, it’s best to see a doctor as soon as possible.

When You’ve Completely Lost Your Appetite

Not feeling like you’re up to cooking dinner happens from time to time; it’s been a long day, and you’d rather just veg out with some snacks in front of the TV. No one can fault you for that! But if you’re regularly skipping meals because you’re just not hungry for them, and this is a recent development, it might be worth it to look into your diet.

Are you not eating just because you need to try something new? Or could it be another sign of stress? Losing your appetite is quite a common sign your stress levels are high, and it’s hard to stop what you’re doing and drag your attention towards making some healthy and filling food. But even if you just order in a few times this week, you’ll at least be eating! And that’s always healthier than not eating at all. You might even notice your appetite coming back in short order.

Your body is very good at telling you what it needs. For example, if you’re under a lot of stress, you may find that certain foods make you feel worse. You may also crave foods that you usually avoid. Pay attention to these cues from your body and try to make changes accordingly. For example, try to satisfy your sweet tooth with fresh fruit if you’re craving sugary snacks. And if you’re constantly tired, make sure to get enough sleep and eat foods that are rich in vitamins and minerals. Listening to your body can help you recover from stress more quickly and effectively.

When Your Heart Regularly Races

Your heart can race for multiple reasons; you’re watching something adrenaline-inducing, you’re getting involved in exercise, or you’re in a scary situation that you’re not sure how to handle. And all of these reasons don’t tend to be something you need to worry about in the long term – once it’s over and done with, your heartbeat will return to normal.

But if you’re feeling stressed over a long period of time, you might find your heart racing seemingly randomly. You get sweaty and out of breath just being at work, or running an errand around the supermarket, and it can feel like your body is beating in rhythm in various places. And while you can usually pull yourself away to calm down, this can become a serious problem if the stress isn’t dealt with.

When You Find it Hard to Focus

Finding it hard to focus happens from time to time. Maybe you’re bored, maybe your mind is on other things, maybe you’ve been chatting to someone and forgotten what you were supposed to be doing – these are all human things. However, if you walk into work, or you sit down to crunch some numbers and just can’t get on with anything, it’s another way stress can mess with you.

This is usually an obvious problem, and can cause some real panic. Maybe your eyes cross and your mind gets a bit fuzzy? Or you’re taking ages to get something done that usually only takes you 20 minutes? You can even struggle to actually just look at something right in front of you, in the worst-case scenario!

You may need to try a couple of things to help you focus, such as Delta 8 Seltzers, if your stress levels are constantly high and you find that you can’t focus on anything. Meditation, if your mind is constantly racing and you can’t seem to focus on anything. Take a break from work or whatever it is that you’re doing if you find that you’re staring at a screen and not getting anything done. Sometimes, it’s better to return to something later when you’re feeling more relaxed and can focus better.

Stress can be bad for your body in the long term, but when should things really change? It’s always up to you of course, but make sure signs and symptoms like those above don’t go unchallenged for too long. And it’s important to always talk to your doctor about the stress you’re feeling and follow their advice!