In the past two episodes, we have been looking at what can cause a good or bad attitude and  the effects of attitude on other people. In today’s episode of the Weird Is Great podcast we examine how your attitude can impact your own life for good or bad, and how you can change your attitude if it tends toward the negative.

Remember, this blog and podcast are all about helping you to become successful in all areas of life so that you can live the richest, most fulfilling life possible. And your attitude – even if it’s just slightly negative in only one part of your world – can make or break you, can help you or hinder you.

You want to be part of the five percent who actually live their dreams? Then get an attitude check, and if necessary, an attitude adjustment.

And remember to check out my e-book Weird Success for many more tips and important information on improving your chances of success.

Figuring out how to change your attitude can be a hellish kind of soul search. After all, your attitude is largely based on past experiences, and if you have had mostly bad ones – or mostly bad ones in a particular area of life – getting a new attitude is a kin to ripping out an old maple tree by its roots.

But the answer, though not necessarily easy, is simple: change your perspective.

I recently made a comment on a blog that provoked someone else – not the blogger herself, another reader – to respond back.

Rile back, in my opinion. Without going into details, I will simply say that I felt she was attacking my motherhood. My ability to be a good mother. The underlying message was, “You haven’t thought this all out, or else you’re just a complete idiot. Even though I don’t know your child at all, let me tell you what your problem is and how to solve it…”

If you’re a mother, you know how I reacted. I – well, I reacted. My husband heard about it when he came home from work that day. We mothers get defensive when it comes to our kids, and you better not imply we are doing less than our best.

Moreover, I didn’t want to change my attitude. I felt I had a right to my attitude.

Then I read another blog post. The blogger, another mother, started the post talking about how she had struggled with previous pregnancies, having had several miscarriages and health problems with the ones that did finally come to fruition.

Then she talked about her most recent pregnancy.

The one that no longer existed.

She hadn’t had another miscarriage. She had a horrible choice to make.

The baby in her womb had a tumor growing out of her mouth that was bigger than her head. And it would only get bigger, the doctors said. That she would survive the entire pregnancy, let alone the first few days out of the womb, was a slim-to-none chance.

The blogger and her husband had a choice to make. And their little baby girl is now in heaven.

The story stopped me dead in my tracks. I was so concerned about what another woman thought about my mothering ability, and here was someone just struggling to become a mother.

I had a change in perspective that day. And a 180-degree change in attitude.

Really want to change your attitude? Look outside of your own little world, and change your perspective.

Converting a negative attitude to a positive one may be a great anger management tool. But your attitude does more than influence your emotions. The effect of attitude on the people around you can not only harm their well-being but also stifle their forward movement.

How do you know if you have a bad attitude? Sometimes it’s obvious. You react to certain situations or events – or perhaps you have a negative reaction to everything.

But many people are unaware they have a negative attitude. Generally, they feel they have a “right” to their perceptions, reactions and opinions. They may simmer internally about things they don’t like, hurt others verbally, or behave like a drama queen or king.

In today’s episode of the Weird Is Great podcast, we continue following the lives of the characters I introduced in the previous show in order to demonstrate how their negative attitudes impact other people.

Join me today as we take a look at how the effects of attitude may:

• create conflict
• destroy friendships, or keep them from developing altogether
• help others to relax and feel better about themselves
• cause marriage problems
• lead to productive action
• lead to a counterproductive sense of entitlement
• stimulate a tighter, more caring community

If you want to be one of the minority who actually achieve their goals and goes after their dreams, you must give yourself an attitude check. Why? You need other people, and other people need you. If the effects of your attitude on them causes alienation, nobody wins.

In this episode of the Weird Is Great Podcast, we start looking at the importance of a positive attitude and how it relates to your success. Note the word “success.” Most people think of it in terms of wealth, financial or material. If that’s so, it would seem that it’s possible to have a bad attitude and still have success.

But change the definition of success, and suddenly attitude has everything to do with success. If success has to do with great relationships, doing fulfilling work and continually growing and learning, a positive attitude is vital to anyone’s success.

Tune in as we discuss:

• how your perspective can form your attitude;
• why personality is key;
• how past experiences lead to certain attitudes; and
• why digging in your heels and having to be right can actually sabotage your journey to true success.

Why am I going to spend three entire episodes (I could spend many more) harping on this? I want you to understand that your attitude can make or break you. Attitude causes us either to have fear, or to have faith. And if you are constantly living in fear – even at a subconscious level – you won’t take the action you need to in order to get where you deeply desire to be.

A positive attitude is everything when it comes to creating success.

Podcast music provided by Kevin MacLeod

How to reduce stress? In the past two episodes of Weird Is Great, we talked about what stress is, what causes it, and its symptoms. We delved into two of the worst effects stress has on the body physically – essentially, getting rid of stress is equivalent to finding a cure for cancer!

In this episode, we get into how to reduce stress and manage it. Join me as we learn about:

• the number one key to sending your stress levels into the basement;
• why the way you handle stress now may be compromising your physical health even further;
• the four most important ways to manage or eliminate stress;
• how lifestyle choices can affect stress; and
• tips on taking time for yourself.

Listen in for great ideas on how to reduce stress – even march it out the door!

Resources for this episode:

HelpGuide.com

Weird Health e-book

Music by Kevin MacLeod

The symptoms of stress are many and varied, and getting it under control may be a crucial part of an anger management program. In today’s episode of the Weird Is Great podcast, I explain:

• what stress is;
• various symptoms; and
• the two major ways stress affects your physical health.

How stress is sabotaging your success

I am all about encouraging people to live their dreams. But you can’t even pursue medium-sized goals – not with much effectiveness, anyway – when you are run-down, fatigued and catch every illness that flies down your street.

And those are just some of the milder symptoms of stress.

What’s worse, is that if you are chronically stressed – and most Westerners today are – you are at a much higher risk of dying early of a degenerative disease.

Let me clarify: if you die at age eighty, you died early.

Yes, I know that’s weird. But that’s the point: if you want to live to your full potential, you have got to get out of “normal” and start doing weird things. That is, unconventional things.

It is quite unconventional to live with chronic peace rather than chronic stress. Unconventional, but desirable. Difficult, but not impossible.

Symptoms of stress

You are probably more stressed out than you think. Here are just a few symptoms:

• Can’t sleep.
• Sleep too much.
• Can’t eat.
• Eat too much.
• Snapping at loved ones at the slightest provocation.
• Catching frequent colds.
• Diarrhea.
• Constipation.
• Indigestion.
• Pain.
• Can’t concentrate.
• Depression.
• Biting fingernails.
• Withdrawal.
• Can’t relax.

The symptoms of stress you manifest depend on your physical makeup, personality and past experiences. But no matter what they are, they are a telltale sign that your physical health is being compromised in some way. And if you physical health goes down, so does you energy and desire to be all that you can be.

Need help improving your overall health? Don’t miss my e-book, Weird Health. It’s what the doctor (er, Crunchy Coach ) ordered.

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Music provided by Kevin MacLeod.

Treatment for manic depression, or bipolar disorder, does not have to mean toxic drugs or expensive psychiatric sessions. This mental illness, affecting an estimated seventeen million people in the United States, is characterized by bouts of clinical depression followed by a period when the person feels elated and over-confident. This leads to behaviors like overspending, high-risk investing, gambling and even drug abuse, fighting or sexual promiscuity.

While a few cases may be purely psychological, the general consensus is that the problem stems from an imbalance of the person’s brains chemistry. Whether caused by a nutritional deficiency or a hormonal imbalance, brain chemistry can be easily set aright by natural means.

Following are five effective treatments for manic depression.

1. B vitamins

B vitamins are essential in regulating a variety of hormones that affect mood, particularly endorphines. Since the foods with the highest amount of B vitamins – animal organs such as liver and brain – are avoided by most Americans today, a deficiency in the B vitamins is easy to develop.

Probably the best source of B vitamins available in stores today is the Garden of Life Vitamin Code Raw B-Complex, available in many stores.

2. Whole food diet

Some find their treatment for manic depression solely consists in adopting a healthy diet. Monosodium glutamate and the myriad of chemicals used to color, flavor and preserve processed foods can alter one’s brain chemistry. In addition, a whole-foods based diet is much higher in nutrients, which helps the body to be generally healthier.

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Reduce your risk of developing mental illness and degenerative disease! Learn the principles of living in optimum health with my  e-book, Weird Health. Download the first few pages for FREE.

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3. Daily exercise

Getting the blood circulating and muscles moving also help the body to release the stress-busting endorphins. While strength training is being more emphasized lately, those with bipolar disorder should not neglect aerobic exercise, as it does more to release those precious hormones.

4. Time outdoors

Taking a walk around the block or even hiking a nature trail will not cure manic depression all by itself. However, spending some time every day in the fresh air and enjoying the trees and flowers does wonders to reduce stress levels. And when stress levels go down, so does your risk of mental illness.

5. Frankincense essential oil

This oil – in its completely undiluted, unadulterated form – is proven to effectively treat mental issues, especially depression. Like the B vitamins, it works on the brain chemistry to get everything into balance. Be Young Essential Oils also sells a blend called Brain Gem, which contains frankincense, that is specifically formulated to bring the brain back into balance.

Masaji, another Be Young product, not only contains frankincense essential oil but also is high in B vitamins.

Effective treatment for manic depression is no further than your front door or the nearest health food store. Don’t allow yourself or your loved ones to suffer with it any longer.

To declutter your home is a cancer cure? Well, even I think that’s a bit of a stretch, but the fact is, a cluttered home can be a cause of stress, and the more stress you have, the more open you are to getting all manner of illness and disease.

So if your home has more piles of stuff than you would like to admit, and it’s starting to drive you batty, take a look at the following five tips to declutter your home.

1. Have a “miscellaneous” basket in each of the three most populated rooms of your house.

This is the basket into which the mail gets tossed, or the odd screw that no one knows where it came from, or the cheap broken toy you intend to glue one of these days.

2. Spend fifteen minutes a week decluttering.

It’s not so much the piling up of things after a few days that becomes a problem, but letting things go for weeks. Purposely schedule a fifteen-minute period every week when you will put things away where they belong.

3. Keep receipts in an accordion file.

While they seem small and unobtrusive, dropping receipts on every surface of every room can lead to a mess. It also leads to frustration when you want to return something, and can’t find the receipt.

Get an accordion file with twelve sections, and label each section by month. When you get a receipt, put it in the appropriate section. The next year, recycle all the receipts from that month a year ago, and start over.

4. Don’t be in a hurry.

Clutter happens because we think we don’t have  a spare minute to put something where it belongs. Realize that you do, relax, and take the time to put things back in their proper places as soon as you’re done using them. Which reminds me…

5. Have a place for everything.

When we first got married, my husband made me nuts the way he would just throw his wallet and keys and change wherever he happened to be standing when he remembered to clean out his pockets.

Finally, we found a wooden box that was perfect for the purpose. He quickly got into the habit of putting his pocket items there when he came home from work, and always knows where to find them when he leaves for work

Knowing that a bit of decluttering could actually improve your health, what tips would you add to declutter your home?

Eucalyptus oil is one of the staples for a natural health medicine cabinet. But be sure to have the radiata type on hand, as this is the one lowest in camphor and thus the least toxic and safest for children. (It is the globolus variety that is usually sold.)

What makes this product so great? Eucalyptus is anti-inflammatory, anti-spasmodic, anti-septic, anti-bacterial and stimulating. It is also a decongestant as well a deodorant – though I don’t recommend putting it under your arms before a date.

Eucalyptus essential oil uses

This oil is famous for fighting colds, coughs and respiratory illnesses. Here are a few specific ways to use it for such ailments:

• For a cough with mucous in the throat: One drop eucalyptus oil plus one drop lemon oil mixed with a few ounces of water and gargled.
• For a decongestant: A couple drops each dill, eucalyptus and lemon oil blended and rubbed on the chest.
• A natural cough drop: 2 drops marjoram oil, 1 drop peppermint oil, one drop eucalyptus, one teaspoon raw honey. Combine the oils and swallow, then chase with the honey.
• If you suspect a virus in the mucous membranes, rub two or three drops on the chest and one drop behind each ear.
• Diffuse it while you’re sleeping.
• For stuffy noses and coughs, place 1-2 drops of Eucalyptus essential oil in the palm of your hands. Rub your hands together a couple of times, then cover your nose and mouth with your hands and inhale several times.
• 1-2 drops of Eucalyptus over the bridge of the nose will relieve sinuses. It will annoy your eyes for about five minutes, but then be fine.

There are many other uses of this oil. It repels biting insects, and almost instantly heals mosquito bites. It is anti-bacterial, antiviral and anti-fungal, making it a perfect remedy to take daily to fend off any kind of illness.

It relieves hay fever, can heal asthma, and increases blood oxygen supply, providing an energy boost. It also relieves joint and muscular pain and headaches; fights fevers and urinary tract infections; generally improves immune function; and when combined with geranium and juniper oils helps to lower blood sugar.

It clears up acne, overcomes sluggishness, increases mental capacity, cools the heat of anger, and helps to prevent cavities, plaque and gingivitis.

So look at this: swish and swallow a couple drops of eucalyptus oil a couple times every day, and you will have more energy, more disease resistance, think more clearly and have healthier teeth!

If you do not yet have Eucalyptus radiata (NOT globulus) as part of your natural first aid kit, buy eucalyptus oil today. For all its health benefits, the price is definitely right!

Reducing stress is  key to healthy living, and there are many ways to reduce stress, including

• better nutrition,
• more exercise,
• managing thoughts and emotions and
• simplifying life.

But one of the simplest ways of decreasing stress levels is little-thought of  in today’s gotta-have-it-now society.

That method is being prepared.

“Prepared for what?”

Ever had a power outage and after a couple hours wondered if you were going to lose all the meat in your freezer? I did once. Except it turned out not to be a power outage; some juvenile delinquent had stolen the meter from the outside of my condo.

In the meantime, I had to ask around to find a neighbor if she had enough room to store my food in her freezer. I had no other way to save my frozen things.

More than once in my younger, more naive years I ran out of gas in my car. Did I have extra gas in my trunk? Nope.

In both instances, how to reduce stress would have been being better prepared for the respective problems.

Granted, running out of gas is something I could have easily predicted. But I don’t know when some freak storm might blow through and wreak havoc with the city power lines for a week. Or some kind of natural disaster might mess up the city’s water supply system.

The bizarre arctic fronts that swept through the United States this past February caused my north Texas suburban neighbors to swarm grocery stores and gas pumps before they hit. Why? They didn’t have any emergency store of food or gas.

Again, the meteorologists gave everyone a heads-up on that one, but the cold snap that effectively shut down the Dallas-Fort Worth area for a week could have gone on longer than predicted. Then most people would have been in trouble.

And if you work for somebody else, you never know when you might lose your job. There are few ways to reduce stress in such a circumstance, and one is to have extra store of necessities so you don’t need to go into debt just to put food on the table while you are in between jobs.

Basic preparation

It doesn’t take a lot of time, effort or money to be prepared for unexpected emergencies. And when you do, it becomes one of the key ways to reduce stress. The following list is not comprehensive, but enough to get you started.

• Enough non-perishable food to last at least a month. Include mostly foods you would eat anyway, and a variety.
• Enough water to last at least a month. Buy a few three-gallon containers that some grocery store carry, and you can have that done in a jiffy.
• Extra supply of personal hygiene items, such as toilet paper, oral hygiene products, shampoo, etc.
• Extra vinegar and baking soda. There are a million uses for each.
• A small generator, at least enough to run your refrigerator for a few hours. You could even have a single solar panel to power it so it will run even logner.
• An emergency radio.
• A stash of cash in your home, at least a few hundred dollars.
• A couple gallons of gas in the trunk of your car.

Being prepared for emergencies lifts a burden off your shoulders you probably didn’t even realize was there. That’s what makes one of the most powerful ways to reduce stress.