Beginning with the next morning, stay in bed for a few of minutes more and try this simple three-step morning ritual to get off to a good start:

1. Feed your mind

   In the morning, your mind is like an empty canvas, waiting to be painted. This is the best time to feed positive affirmations to your brain, get rid of self-limiting thoughts and align yourself with important goals.

   And what better way to get motivated than inspirational quotes on life from famous people? Below are a sample of some wise sayings which you can use to feed your brain. Alternatively, you can also make your own affirmations that are tied to your goals in life, or ones that help you to overcome your weaknesses.

   The secret of success is to be ready when your opportunity comes. – Benjamin Disraeli

   We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. – Aristotle

   Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen. – Michael Jordan

   Successful people have developed the habit of doing the things that less successful simply don’t like to do. – Unknown

   If you’re going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big. – Donald Trump

   Exude happiness and you will feel it back a thousand times. – Joan Lunden

   Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they’re supposed to help you discover who you are. – Bernice Johnson Reagon

   Don’t be afraid to take big steps. You can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps. – David Lloyd George

   Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. – Howard Thurman

2. Say thanks

   Your frame of mind at the beginning of the day influences how the rest of your day will become. If you’re feeling crappy, then you’re likely to seek out things around you that will reinforce how you feel throughout the day.

   On the other hand, if you begin the day with gratitude and contentment, you will be more inclined to treat yourself and others with appreciation, respect and humility instead.

   Gratitude plays an even more crucial role when you’re going through a tough time, as it puts your situation in the right perspective.

   So, start making a list of things that you’re thankful for mentally, including the water you drink (though you should filter it first) and the abundant foods you eat (you’re loading up on anti-inflammatory foods instead of junk foods, right?). Bear in mind that even in this high-technology age there are still many people who don’t have access to basic necessities like clean water and food. Count yourself lucky to be one of the privileged few!

3. Scan your body

   Improve your body awareness by performing a body scan each morning. When we’re busy, we tend to neglect subtle signals sent by our body. These signals are often early signs of diseases or ailments which require our attention before they develop into more serious health conditions.

   Starting from your crown, take note of any pain, numbness or tingling sensation. Slowly progress downwards to your throat, shoulders, hands, lungs, lower abdomen, thighs, calves and lastly your feet.

   If a particular spot feels uncomfortable, gently rest your attention on it and stay with it. Tell yourself, “I don’t need to hold this tension/pain/discomfort inside me” and release it.

   If the discomfort persists for a number of days, or increases in intensity, check with your family physician as soon as you can to arrest any health problem early.

1. Meditation requires a lot of time

   Do you have twenty minutes a day? Of course you do! That’s all the time you need to meditate, though you may find yourself wanting to sit longer as you progress. Contrary to what you may have heard, you don’t need to invest a huge amount of time in meditation. Just meditate for twenty minutes each day. If you’re really short for time, even a brief ten-minute sitting is better than nothing. And to get the most out of it, meditate daily, instead of leaving all the meditation to the weekend.

2. Meditation is meant only for Buddhists

   Although meditation has been closely linked to Buddhism, meditation by its very nature, is religion neutral. It doesn’t require you to believe in some higher beings or deities. Similarly, it also doesn’t require you to give up your existing religious belief, if you’ve one. Take the example of breathing meditation, which requires you to pay attention on your breathing. How ‘religious’ is that? Though there may be forms of meditation that require the visualization of religious icons, they can usually be modified to suit one’s belief system.

3. Meditation requires sitting in lotus position which I can’t do

   Although the full lotus position is a classic pose for meditation, you don’t necessarily have to do it if you find it uncomfortable or painful. Forcing yourself into a full lotus will only hinder your ability to concentrate and defeat the purpose of meditation. In addition, for those suffering from joint problems, sitting cross-legged can also be a real pain, even for fifteen minutes. In such cases, you can try half-lotus, sitting on a chair or squatting on a meditation stool. It’s important to find a position that’s suitable for you, but yet not so comfortable that you fall asleep. But regardless of how you meditate, it’s important not to compromise your posture for comfort. Always keep your spine and neck upright and neutral to prevent causing any injury to them.

4. Meditation is not suitable for hyperactive people

   If you can sit through a two-hour movie or TV program without budging, you can definitely sit still for twenty minutes with yourself. It just takes practice to get used to facing your own thoughts, ideas, desires and emotions. During meditation, it’s not necessary to conjure up any elaborate visualization in full HD glories unless that’s what you want to do. In fact, if you like, you don’t even need to do a thing when you meditate except to observe your breaths or your thoughts.

5. Meditation is a practice of detachment

   Some thought that meditation is a practice to detach oneself from his thoughts, desires and emotions so as to become unmovable by them. That is not meditation; it is self-denial. Because doing so only separates us further from our feelings and thoughts, when what we really need is to get in touch with them and understand them. In meditation, we are not trying to run away from ourselves. On the contrary, we are trying to get as close to our true self as we possibly can.

6. Meditation is like hypnosis

   Meditation doesn’t put you in a trance state. You remain fully conscious and in full control of yourself throughout the entire session. It’s totally different from being hypnotized, when one is more opened to external suggestions and influences. Meditation is not hypnosis.

So are you ready to learn meditation now? Try the Beginners Guide to Meditation at The Conscious Life to get started. While you are at it, don’t forget to check out the list of free meditation music at the same site to make your meditation more interesting.

Here are some reasons why we should rethink the water we use every day, and why water filters such as the Zero Water filter may be the best investment we can make for our health:

1. Great Polluted Lakes

   The five Great Lakes — Erie, Huron, Michigan, Ontario, and Superior — make up more than 80 percent of the U.S.’s freshwater supply and more than 20 percent of the world’s. But they have been increasingly polluted by agricultural, industrial and recreational activities that take place around and within the lakes. Pollutants, such as discharged waste water from factories, untreated sewage and toxic contaminants, enter and get trapped in the lakes, increasing in concentration over time.

2. The Water Myth

   Pure natural water is a myth. In nature, water picks up minerals as well as contaminants like arsenic, viruses and bacteria as it flows through streams, sits in lakes, and sips through rocks in the ground. It is the amount of these substances that determines whether the water is safe or unsafe for consumption.

3. Massive Contamination Power of Oil

   Used oil is a major source of oil contamination of waterways and result in pollution of drinking water sources. Spilled or inappropriately disposed used oil from one oil change can contaminate up to 1 million gallons of fresh water, or a year’s supply for fifty people.

4. Chlorine: The Double-Edged Sword

   Chlorine is a commonly used disinfectant to remove viruses and bacteria from water. But chlorine is also toxic to humans and it reacts with organic compounds in the water to form by-products like trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids that can lead to cancer and reproductive disorders.

5. Killing with Ozone

   Ozone is another popular disinfectant that is used standalone or in addition to chlorine to kill germs in the water. However, ozone can react with natural occurring bromide in the water to form bromate, which is a known carcinogen.

6. Mouth Wash or Drinking Water?

   Fluoride is often added to drinking water by water suppliers to prevent tooth decay. But this controversial additive was once used as a rat poison and has been linked to bone disease in some studies, including pain and tenderness of the bones.

7. Chloramine: Deadlier than Chlorine?

   Chloramine is increasingly used as an alternative to chlorine as it is more stable and does not dissipate from the water before it reaches consumers. It also doesn’t have the distinct smell and taste which is characteristic to chlorine-treated water. However, chloramine has been found to create more disinfection by-products than chlorination and increases the leaching of lead from pipes.

8. Drink to Weaker Immune Health

   The elderly and young children, as well as people with immune health compromised by AIDS, chemotherapy and other chronic diseases are more vulnerable to microbial and toxic contaminants in drinking water, even at levels declared safe by the authority.

9. The Convoluted Journey of Water

   Treated water from public water suppliers can be further contaminated as it makes its way to our homes — by dissolving unwanted chemicals and substances such as asbestos, bacteria, viruses, lead and PVC from corroded or aging pipes.

Can we still take our water for granted?

The call for change came after post-marketing reports found that Voltaren could cause serious liver reactions, including liver necrosis, jaundice, hepatitis and liver failure. Some of these reported cases have also resulted in the need for a liver transplant or even death, though the exact number of cases is unknown. As a result, now all manufacturers of products containing diclofenac sodium are required to include stronger warnings and precautions about possible liver toxicity.

In the letter, physicians are recommended to take the following precautions to prevent severe liver damage to patients using diclofenac sodium products:

1. Give patients the lowest effective dose of diclofenac for the shortest possible duration.
2. Closely monitor transaminases in patients who are using diclofenac on a long-term basis.
3. Inform patients to look out for warning signs of diclofenac side effects, such as nausea, fatigue, lethargy, diarrhea, pruritus, jaundice, right upper quadrant tenderness and flu-Like symptoms.
4. Exercise caution when prescribing diclofenac with drugs that are known to be potentially hepatotoxic (e.g. antibiotics and anti-epileptics).

Labeling change for NSAIDs and other drugs are not new. In 2005, following the voluntary withdrawal of Vioxx from the market in the previous year, the FDA requested all prescription and over-the-counter NSAIDs to add new warnings and precautions to warn patients about cardiovascular and gastrointestinal bleeding risk.

Vioxx is a type of NSAID known as COX-2 inhibitor that targets a specific enzyme believed to be responsible for causing inflammation in the body. But, this drug has been found to increase the risk of heart attack even at low doses, which led to its downfall. After the withdrawal of Vioxx, Bextra which is also a COX-inhibitor, was also removed from the market.

The latest warnings for diclofenac sodium add to the long list of potential side effects of NSAID use. NSAIDs have long been known for causing gastrointestinal complications like stomach ulcer and bleeding, hypertension, skin reactions, kidney problems, as well as increase the risk of cardiac events such as heart attack and stroke.

But despite the possible side effects, NSAIDs continued to be used widely throughout the world. In the US alone, some 60 million prescriptions are written for NSAIDs per year, and many of them are for elderly patients who are more prone to the adverse reactions of NSAIDs.

NSAIDs are not a cure for diseases. They only serve to relieve symptoms temporarily. Considering the potential serious side effects, patients should not use NSAIDs on a long-term basis. Instead, both health care practitioners and patients should work together to address the root cause of chronic inflammation.

With cautious and short-term use of drugs as well as sustained positive lifestyle changes, it’s possible to reduce inflammation and reduce the intensity of inflammatory ailments. Some of the feasible changes include not smoking, cutting down on the consumption of highly inflammatory foods, increasing the intake of natural anti-inflammatory foods, exercising regularly and managing stress properly.

What Exactly is Inflammation?

Inflammation is an essential part of our body’s healing process. Without it, we will have a hard time recovering from a small cut or an innocuous cold. That’s because chemicals that kill bacteria, viruses and other nasty germs are produced during inflammation so that we don’t end up becoming a big feast for trillions of microscopic enemies.

But what happens when an inflammation response doesn’t stop even though there is no germ to fight? That’s when pro-inflammatory chemicals which are otherwise beneficial start to turn against us instead. There are often no symptoms for chronic inflammation. But as it hammers quietly at our blood vessels, cells and vital parts of the body over a long period of time, deadly diseases like cancer eventually occur.

Inflammatory Questionnaire

Many factors can cause our inflammatory response to go haywire. Aside from hereditary reasons, one of the main causes is our lifestyle — what we eat on a daily basis, how we manage our emotions, how often we exercise, how well we sleep and etc.

Below is a short quiz you can take to gauge whether the lifestyle you’re leading now is breeding chronic diseases:

1. Do you eat less than two portions of fish, one of which is oily (like salmon), every week?
2. Do you use any of the following vegetable oil as your main cooking oil: cottonseed, corn, safflower, soybean, or sunflower?
3. Do you suffer from food allergies or food intolerance?
4. Do you often take foods prepared with partially or fully hydrogenated vegetable oil?
5. Do you eat highly refined or processed foods, like white rice, white bread and convenience food, in every meal?
6. Does your diet consist of lots of foods that are high in sugar, like cakes, biscuits, pastries and soft drinks?
7. Is feeling of depression, anxiety, stress, or anger an everyday affair?
8. Do you get moderate exercise less than three times a week? (Each session should last at least 30 minutes.)
9. Do you usually wake up feeling as if you’ve not slept for the whole night?
10. Is your BMI more than 25?
11. Are you exposed to polluted air or water regularly?

If you answer ‘yes’ to one or more of the questions, then your body could be secretly pumping out pro-inflammatory chemicals without you realizing.

But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can do. As a start, you can include more items from this list of anti-inflammatory foods in your diet and begin an exercise program that keeps you active at least three times a week. Learn to manage your stress well by putting your worries and problems in the right perspective. Would they still be a problem 3 or 5 years from now? Lastly, maintain a healthy weight.

Chronic inflammation may look like an inevitable path, but there are things we can do to reduce it as low as we can. Let us not die of ignorance.

So, are you keeping chronic inflammation in check?