The following free resources offer a variety of information and materials for seeking, reaching, and achieving wellness and life balance. Whether at home, work, or play, your understanding and level of wellness in every life area impacts your success at living life. Just click on each wellness area of interest to you and start utilizing these practical free resources.

As your certified life/wellness coach, Sharon will be there to help you believe and realize the life you were designed to live. You can get started right now by completing a Wellness Inquiry Form, and signing up for a one-hour complimentary coaching consult to focus on what part of wellness and your life is most important to you. Get yourself started on the road to wellness in every life dimension area.

In addition, there are various assessment and life satisfaction tools such as the Personality Profile System and Wellness Inventory that will prove valuable toward incorporating these helpful Tips for Life. You can learn more about these assessment tools by clicking on the side links.

Remember to request a one-hour complimentary coaching session to experience the benefits of a coaching session first-hand. Sharon looks forward to hearing from you!

Wellness Area

Tips for Life

General
Topics: Prevention
Wellness
Longevity

National Wellness Institute:
Staying Safe at the Beach
Finding a New Doctor
Five Simple Ways to Improve Your Health
MIND Your Health
Safety Basics for Preventing Injury
Wellness Fun Facts
Wellness Quotables

Wellness Inventory Program—
Begin Your Journey to a Higher Level of Wellness!
The Wellness Inventory is a pioneering "whole person" wellness program designed to help you gain personal insight into your state of physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. The program, developed by HealthWorld Online and wellness pioneer John W. Travis, MD, MPH, offers guidance and tools to transform this new awareness into lasting changes in your life, and a renewed sense of health and well-being.
What can the Wellness Inventory do for you?

Discover your wellness profile in 12 dimensions of your life.
Identify the areas in your life you are most motivated to change.
Create a personalized wellness action plan.
Access tools and resources to help you reach your goals.
Create the desired changes in your life.
Track your progress in reaching a higher level of wellness.
Achieve a higher level of health, wellbeing and aliveness.

The Nation's 10 most expensive health conditions:

Heart conditions—$76 billion
Trauma disorders—$72 billion
Cancer—$70 billion
Mental disorders, incl. depression—$56.0 bill.
Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease—$54 billion
High blood pressure—$42 billion
Type 2 diabetes—$34 billion
Osteoarthritis and other joint diseases—$34 billion
Back problems—$32 billion
Normal childbirth—$32 billion

These 10 most expensive medical conditions cost about $500 billion to treat in 2005, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ, http://www.ahrq.gov/news/nn/nn012308.htm). The money paid for visits to doctors' offices, clinics and emergency departments, hospital stays, home health care, and prescription medicines.

THE 5 BASICS OF WELLNESS & NUTRITION
(click to learn more)
1. Commit to personal accountability for the
responses to life’s challenges and opportunities
2. Take care of your body–hygiene, quality nutrition, exercise (age and condition appropriate)
3. Quiet time–rest and repose
4. Wholesome fun and laughter with family and friends
5. A vibrant spiritual-faith life

Laughter, Healing, & Wellbeing—
Although the medical and mental health experts are still uncertain about the benefits of laughter, there is evidence that we do physiologically change with laughter. Steve Wilson, M.A., CSP, a psychologist and laugh therapist, tells us that "The effects of laughter and exercise are very similar . . . Combining laughter and movement, like waving your arms, is a great way to boost your heart rate" (Griffin RM. CBS, April 4, 2006, Is Laughter the Best Medicine?). William Fry, a pioneer in laughter research, claimed it took 10 minutes on a rowing machine for his heart rate to reach the level that only one minute of hearty laughter achieved.
Researchers over the past couple decades studied laughter's effects on the body and turned up some interesting information (Griffin).

Blood flow—Researchers at the University of Maryland studied the effects on blood vessels when people were shown either comedies or dramas. After the screening, the blood vessels of the group who watched the comedy behaved normally — expanding and contracting easily. But the blood vessels in people who watched the drama tended to tense up, restricting blood flow.
Immune response—Increased stress is associated with decreased immune system response. Some studies have shown that the ability to use humor may raise the level of infection-fighting antibodies in the body and boost the levels of immune cells, as well.
Blood sugar levels. One study of 19 people with diabetes looked at the effects of laughter on blood sugar levels. After eating, the group attended a tedious lecture. On the next day, the group ate the same meal and then watched a comedy. After the comedy, the group had lower blood sugar levels than they did after the lecture.
Relaxation and sleep. The focus on the benefits of laughter really began with Norman Cousins' memoir, Anatomy of an Illness. Cousins, who was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, a painful spine condition, found that a diet of comedies, like Marx Brothers films and episodes of Candid Camera, helped him feel better. He said that 10 minutes of laughter allowed him two hours of pain-free sleep.

5 Simple Steps to Improve Your Health
(Source: “Family Health Enews,”
May 9.2006, by Shaping America’s Health - Association for Weight Management and Obesity Prevention)

1. Play with your kids and preferably outside when possible.It will help nurture your relationship with your children. Active play will also help release stress, improve your mood, and burn calories to help you maintain a healthy weight.
2. Wear a pedometer. Wearing a pedometer will help encourage you to increase the number of steps you take each day. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that we aim for 10,000 steps a day.
3. Start dinner with a salad. Most Americans need to eat more veggies. Starting the meal with a salad will reduce your cravings for the rest of the meal.
4. Eat breakfast. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
Eat foods from several food groups and keep your portion sizes in moderation.
5. Get a good night’s sleep. If you’re stressed out, overweight or sick a lot, you may not be getting enough sleep.

2006/2005 Healthiest Companies—
The Well Workplace Awards by WELCOA

Become a Champion for Health & Productivity Workforce by WELCOA

Latest Book on the Wellness Revolution:
The New Wellness Revolution
By Paul Pilzer. Wiley; Revised edition. 2007.http://thewellnessrevolution.paulzanepilzer.com/index.php

Brain Power

11 Tips to Boost Your Brain

Exercise/
Movement

Exercise habits you should start early

Promoting Physical Fitness

Top Ten Fitness Facts

Lung Power Aerobic training improves the condition
and efficiency of your breathing muscles so that your body can utilize more lung capacity during exercise. Recreational Sports Fitness

Physical Activity Fundamental to Preventing Disease by WELCOA

Leading
Health Risks

The Top Ten Leading Health Indicators are (LIST SOURCE: Healthy People 2010)—
»Physical activity
Ten Energy Boosters

»Overweight and obesity
Losing just 7-10 lbs can reduce diabetes risk from 40-60%!

Top Ten Causes of Obesity

Why Are So Many Americans Overweight? (Source: “Americans See Weight Problems Everywhere but in the Mirror,” April 11, 2006, Pew Research Center.) According to the results of a Pew Research Center phone survey of 2,250 randomly chosen American adults, four factors were listed as the possible cause of the U.S. weight problem. These factors and the percentage of those surveyed who considered them an important cause are:

Failure to get exercise enough—75%
Lack of willpower on what to eat—59%
Kinds of foods marketed in restaurants and grocery stores—50%
Effects of genetics and heredity—32%

»Tobacco use
Tobacco Use Trends, 2006

»Substance abuse

»Responsible sexual behavior

»Mental health

»Injury and violence

»Environmental quality

»Immunization

»Access to health care

Making
Lasting Behavioral Changes

Changing for Good involves six stages of transformation (source: Changing for Good
by James O. Prochaska, PhD, et.al) —
Precontemplation—
Have you even thought about areas that need some change?
Are you resistant to such a change?
Contemplation—
Are you now acknowledging the need and thinking
about making a change?
Preparation—
What kind of plans would you like to design and research?
Action—
What short-term and long-term action steps are you ready to take?
Maintenance/Recycling—
What kind of accountability and lessons from relapse would you want to have in place to preserve transformational change?
Termination—
Are you ready to exit the cycle of change?
Do you believe you now have a new lasting self-image, with no temptation to relapse, you have a solid
"center of gravity" and healthier lifestyle in general?

Why & How People Change Health Behaviors by WELCOA

Nutrition/Eating Pattern

Decide to be healthy, not thin
Eat Nuts for a Healthy Heart Energy Bars
Fight Fatigue w/ Food
Healthy Eating for Kids & Teens
Olive Oil may prevent ulcers Pantry Labels & Layout
What's In Your Pantry?
Food that Should Help you Diet--May Surpises You

Dietary/Herbal Supplement Databases—
Natural Standard, The Authority on Integrative Med
Natural Standard, Kroger Consumer Portal
American Botanical Council
Natural Medicines, Comprehensive Database

Stress Management

Managing Stress on the Job
Job Stress--Overview Tips
Reducing Stress & Relaxing
Say "I Love You" without the Words
Working Life: 4 Steps for Better Work Flow

Holmes-Rahe Stress Inventory

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Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.
Hippocrates

5 Simple Steps to Improve Your Health (Source: “Family Health Enews,” May 9.2006, by Shaping America’s Health - Association for Weight Management and Obesity Prevention)

5 Simple Steps to Improve Your Health
(Source: “Family Health Enews,”
May 9.2006, by Shaping America’s Health - Association for Weight Management and Obesity Prevention)