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Category: Home Environment

One step at a time, we can adopt Better Practices, and Natural Standards in our Homes and Gardens that will benefit our Families and our Health. Solar Energy. Caring for our Vision, our Skin. the Air we Breathe, Water we Drink and Bathe in, cutting down Blue Light and guarding against EMFs so few people know about and simple Strategies we can take to cut them down. AND MORE

Published on Leave a comment on Anxious, Depressed, Distracted — What If The Cure Is Just Outside?

Author Florence Williams talks trees, cities, and creativity in her new book "The Nature Fix."

You Spend 5 Percent Of Your Day Outside. Try Making It More. At a time when more than half of all people live in cities, the influence of the natural world is at a low ebb, while our understanding of it keeps growing.

Try Spending Some Time Outdoors - It Lifts Your Mood Level

For two decades, Florence Williams could sit on her porch at night and watch the alpenglow on the Rocky Mountains. Then she moved from remote Colorado to Washington, DC, and started noticing the changes.

“I felt disoriented, overwhelmed, depressed,” she writes in her recent book, The Nature Fix. “My mind had trouble focusing. I couldn’t finish thoughts … and I wasn’t keen to get out of bed.”

Williams was suffering, she says, from nature withdrawal. She spent the next three years digging into the science of how nature works on our brain. In short, it makes us more relaxed, more creative, and more socially connected. She traveled to Japan and Finland, the deserts of Utah and the urban forests of Singapore, to study just how much we stand to gain by bring nature back into our lives.…

Published on Leave a comment on 5 Simple Ways To Spend More Time Outside As A Family – Have A Peep

That lifestyle is what drew us here. We wanted to provide a different type of upbringing for our three young girls: one that focused on adventurous time spent in nature. So for the past two years we’ve been committed to finding fun and imaginative ways to spend as much time as possible out in nature. Over time we’ve grown from a family that considered a trip to a local park an adventure, to one that hikes and camps, fishes and skis.

We’ve grown closer as a family as we’ve grown to embrace our new lifestyle. And our difficult daughter? Well, we still have our moments, but almost never outside.

At first we didn’t know exactly why we wanted to raise outdoor loving kids – it just instinctively seemed like a good idea. If we did have a specific motivation, it was the hope that by starting them early our girls would grow up physically strong and healthy, and with a lifelong love for outdoor activity. Over time we’ve come to learn that the emotional benefits of more time in nature probably outweigh the physical ones.

BENEFITS OF SPENDING MORE TIME IN NATURE AS A FAMILY

It builds confidence.…

Published on Leave a comment on If Anyone Needs to Stay Positive, Validate Their Feelings—Study Says

I LIKE THE APPROACH IN THIS ARTICLE. POSITVE PSYCHOLOGY COMES UP WITH SOME SIMPLE SOLUTIONS FOR THINGS WE CAN TRY WITH OURSELVES AND FAMILY AND FRIENDS SOMETIMES, TO IMPROVE OUR SITUATION OR FRAME OF MIND. DELVING INTO PROBLEMS ETC IS OLD-SCHOOL, NOT OFTEN PRACTICED THESE DAYS, WHICH IS A GOOD THING REALLY BECAUSE THE LIGHTER WE CAN BE WITH EACH-OTHER THE BETTER. TALKING ABOUT PROBLEMS CAN BE COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE...... ENCOURAGEMENTS AND VALIDATION IS A BETTER WAY TO GO MOST TIMES. IT'S BETTER NOT TO FUSS TOO MUCH, IT CAN ACCENTUATE THINGS INSTEAD OF MAKING US FEEL BETTER:)

Telling a distressed friend or family member something as simple as “I understand why you feel that way” can go a long way toward helping loved ones feel better, new research suggests.

This is especially important with Children.

In an Ohio State University study, participants described to the researchers a real-life incident that made them angry.

When researchers didn’t show support or understanding for the anger participants were describing, the students showed declines in positive emotions. But when the researchers validated what the participants were saying, their positive emotions were protected and stayed the same.…

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Published on 2 Comments on The Importance Of Green Spaces And Their Practical Applications – Researched

GREEN SPACE IS A TERM USED FOR GARDENS, PARKS AND NATURE SETTINGS THAT ARE PLANNED OR INTRODUCED IN CITY AND SUBURBAN AREAS FOR THE BENEFIT OF RESIDENTS, WORKERS AND VISITORS AND ENHANCING DEVELOPMENTS. THEY PROVE TO BE BENEFICIAL FOR HEALTH, MENTALLY AND EMOTIONALLY. THE THERAPUETIC BENEFITS CAN EVEN BE EXPERIENCED PHYSICALLY AS WELL. EVEN THE YOUTH BENEFIT BEHAVORALLY WHEN THERE IS GREEN SPACE IN THEIR AREA. LAND DEVELOPERS ARE NOW CONSIDERING MORE GREEN SPACE IN NEW DEVELOPMENT AREAS. THIS IS SOMETHING THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN INCLUDED YEARS AGO AND IS NOW BEING CORRECTED. GARDENS AND NATURE IS SOMETHING THAT IS NECESSARY IN OUR LIVES AND WE CAN ALL BENEFIT BY SPENDING SOME TIME OUTDOORS.

Gardening For Health: A Regular Dose Of Gardening

By Richard Thompson – Royal College Of Physicians UK

There is anxiety that the NHS cannot cope now and in the future with the health needs of an increasing and ageing population. It is also realised that pharmaceutical drugs are increasingly expensive and are not always as effective as they appear in the results of early, enthusiastically reported, clinical trials. Drugs are also prescribed at the cost of side effects, which are a leading cause of admissions to hospitals, particularly for the elderly, who are poorly represented in trials.…

Published on Leave a comment on We Are Custodians Of The Earth – Lets Take Care Of Nature And She Will Take Care Of Us

By Janet Vargas - Owner Of This Website

Each Country, Each Person. With All Of Us Playing Our Part, There Is Still HOPE. Our Creator Knows Best And We Have Separated Ourselves From NATURE. Sadly But True. In PART, Many Are Waking Up To This, Governments, Countries And Individuals. We Have Made Advances In Clothing And Textiles, Technology And Manufacture Of Many Goods - We Have Much Knowledge In Recent Decades, Yet For The Most Part, We Remain Ignorant About NATURE And NATURE'S ROLE In Our Lives. This Post Is About How Each Of Us Can Make Meaningful Changes As Individuals And Families, Awareness Groups And A Nation, Here In Australia. If You Are Visiting This Website From A Different Country, Welcome, I Encourage You To Practice And Spread Principles You Will See In This Article.

On This Earth, In This 'Civilised' Generation, Indeed We Have Separated Ourselves And Our Children From The Benefits And Privileges Nature Has To Truly Endow Us With. It Goes Without Saying, How We Have Treated This Earth And Sea Very Poorly And Are Reaping Climate Changes Etc As A Result By Disturbing The Elements. We Have Tried To 'Better' Nature (In Her Wisdom) By Turning To Man-Made Medical Drugs And Chemical Agriculture.......In…

Published on Leave a comment on The Foods We Eat Have An Impact On Our Mental Health Often – Especially Over Time

THIS LAST YEAR HAS BROUGHT MANY OF US INTO MORE CONTACT WITH NATURE WHEN HAVING TO DISTANCE OURSELVES SOCIALLY. I'VE ALWAYS LOVED TO HEAR THE BIRDS WHEN THEY VISIT NEARBY, WAKE UP EARLY IN THE MORNINGS, SEE THEM IN THE PARKS, AT THE BEACHES, FLYING IN FORMATIONS ON OCCASSIONS ABOVE THE HOUSES IN MY LOCALITY WHEN I STEP OUTSIDE. I'VE JUST PURCHASED A SECOND BIRDBATH RECENTLY, SO I HAVE A DEEPER ONE OUT THE FRONT FOR THE MAGGIES WHO LOVE TO SPLASH IN IT, AND A SHALLOW ONE FOR THE BACK, SO THE SPARROWS CAN REFRESH THEMSELVES TOO. I CAME HOME THE OTHER DAY TO SEE A PIGEON RESTING PEACEFULLY IN THAT ONE FOR QUITE SOME TIME - NOT SO QUICK TO FLY AWAY, AYE? WITH A LITTLE PATIENCE, YOU CAN BEFRIEND SOME BIRDS A LITTLE - ATLEAST WE CAN MAKE OUR YARDS INVITING AND EXPERIENCE PRECIOUS MOMENTS HERE AND THERE ON DIFFERENT DAYS.

Being Around Birds Makes Us Much Happier Says New Science

By Andy Corbley

We see them nearly everywhere we go, we hear them every day, they live in every environment, and now, two new studies have shown their mere presence makes us happier.…

Published on Leave a comment on What’s This About Dopamine And Tech? Some Things Will Surprise You!

By Simon Parkin – The Observer Technology

The Capacity For ‘Persuasive Technology’ To Influence Behaviour Is Only Just Becoming Understood. 

Silicon Valley is keen to exploit the brain chemical credited with keeping us tapping on apps and social media.

In an unprecedented attack of candour, Sean Parker, the 38-year-old founding president of Facebook, recently admitted that the social network was founded not to unite us, but to distract us. “The thought process was: ‘How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?’” he said at an event in Philadelphia in November. To achieve this goal, Facebook’s architects exploited a “vulnerability in human psychology”, explained Parker, who resigned from the company in 2005. Whenever someone likes or comments on a post or photograph, he said, “we… give you a little dopamine hit”. Facebook is an empire of empires, then, built upon a molecule.

Dopamine, discovered in 1957, is one of 20 or so major neurotransmitters, a fleet of chemicals that, like bicycle couriers weaving through traffic, carry urgent messages between neurons, nerves and other cells in the body. These neurotransmitters ensure our hearts keep beating, our lungs keep breathing and, in dopamine’s case, that we know to get a glass of water when we feel thirsty, or attempt to procreate so that our genes may survive our death.…

Published on Leave a comment on Go With Nature Instead Of Pesticides – Beneficial Plants/Insects Will Help Your Gardening Efforts

CHEMICALS ARE BAD NEWS, NATURE IS GOOD - IT WILL HELP YOU TAKE CARE OF YOUR GARDEN IF YOU WORK WITH IT'S PRINCIPLES, SOMETIMES REFERRED TO AS THE LAWS OF NATURE. JOIN THE MANY FOLK WHO ARE GOING CHEMICAL FREE. IF IT WASN'T FOR THE USE OF NASTY CHEMICALS, MEDICAL WAITING ROOMS WOULD BE HALF EMPTY. YES THAT'S TRUE, SO LETS LOOK AFTER OUR FAMILIES, HEY? AND SPREAD THE NEWS FROM THIS POST TO NEIGHBOURS AND FRIENDS, SO THEY CAN BENEFIT TOO. MANY ARE TURNING TO THE DIGGERS CLUB OR YOUTUBE AND VARIOUS WEBSITES FOR BETTER SOLUTIONS, SO HERE'S SOME OF MY EFFORTS TO HELP YOU WITH YOUR SEARCH, INCLUDING 2 SAFE ORGANIC SPRAYS.

You Will See 5 Beneficial Insects To Encourage.

EXCERPTS FROM DIFFERENT WEBSITES

To Help Insects, Make Them Welcome In Your Garden – Here’s How

By Brian Lovett - Postdoctoral Researcher in Mycology, West Virginia University

Lawns Are Insect Food Deserts

Some gardeners choose native plants to attract and support helpful insects. Often, however, those native plants are surrounded by vast expanses of lawn. If you’re a gardener looking for a new challenge this year, consider revamping all or part of your yard to support beneficial insects.…

Published on Leave a comment on 30 Ways To Brighten The Coming Months – See How Many You Did Not Think Of

By Janet Vargas - Owner Of This Website

WE CAN USE THIS TIME TO ADD VALUE TO OUR LIVES RATHER THAN LETTING THE QUALITY DIMINISH. HEY? WHEN WE ARE WORKING MORE, WE WISH WE HAD MORE TIME TO SPEND AT HOME - WE CAN TURN THIS TIME INTO SOMETHING POSITIVE - WE COULD USE THIS TIME TO DEVELOP NEW INTERESTS, WHATEVER.

Enjoy The Little Things - There Are So Many Of Them!!!

Start the day with a grateful heart. In the day or evening
Think of…. and Engage in these....

Nice things from the day or week before (no matter how small, it’s the little things that make up life).

Something you are looking forward to.

The advantages there are to having more time available.

Maybe learning something new over YouTube Videos (a new skill or hobby).

Ways you can make the coming weeks happy ones instead of sad.

Ways you can make your rooms nicer or inviting so you actually like being home.

How many negative thoughts you can change.

A negative thought pattern you can exchange for a better one.

Things you can feel glad about instead of sad.…

Published on Leave a comment on Healing From Neglect As A Child: Find Keys – This Will Make A Difference!

By Janet Vargas - Owner Of This Website

Was there some way you felt unnoticed in your upbringing? Some of us experienced that with Teachers, an Aunty and Uncle, a big Brother or Sister but others have had rough beginnings with their Parents - believe it or not - who took very little notice of them and did not show much affection. This is something I've felt very passionate about since the 80's.

If you were neglected in some way as a child - unnoticed or lacking affection - I really feel for you because I experienced a sudden change at a young age of a different but similar nature, that left me decidedly empty and unfulfilled. Parents, please give each child your best in life. You may not have much else to give them materially speaking but please give them the "Best of You!" Lots of hugs, some undivided interest each day and some laughter in the Home are the Best Gifts and Start in Life you can give them - other things are not so important.

You need to apologise to your kids and change your ways if you don't.…