Positive Thinking

Just sharing some interesting reads I came across this one is by James Clear an author about about behavioral psychology, and I am giving you the brief version. You can read the whole article here.

The Science of Positive Thinking: How Positive Thoughts Build Your Skills, Boost Your Health, and Improve Your Work

Positive thinking sounds useful on the surface. (Most of us would prefer to be positive rather than negative.) But "positive thinking" is also a soft and fluffy term that is easy to dismiss. In the real world, it rarely carries the same weight as words like "work ethic" or "persistence."

But those views may be changing.

Research is beginning to reveal that positive thinking is about much more than just being happy or displaying an upbeat attitude. Positive thoughts can actually create real value in your life and help you build skills that last much longer than a smile.

What Negative Thoughts Do to Your Brain

Researchers have long known that negative emotions program your brain to do a specific action.
For example, when you're in a fight with someone, your anger and emotion might consume you to the point where you can't think about anything else. Or, when you are stressed out about everything you have to get done today, you may find it hard to actual start anything because you're paralyzed by how long your to-do list has become. Or, if you feel bad about not exercising or not eating healthy, all you think about is how little willpower you have, how you're lazy, and how you don't have any motivation.Your brain closes off from the outside world and focuses on the negative emotions of fear, anger, and stress. Negative emotions prevent your brain from seeing the other options and choices that surround you.

What Positive Thoughts Do to Your Brain


When you are experiencing positive emotions like joy, contentment, and love, you will see more possibilities in your life. These findings were among the first that suggested positive emotions broaden your sense of possibility and open your mind up to more options.

A child who runs around outside, swinging on branches and playing with friends, develops the ability to move athletically (physical skills), the ability to play with others and communicate with a team (social skills), and the ability to explore and examine the world around them (creative skills). In this way, the positive emotions of play and joy prompt the child to build skills that are useful and valuable in everyday life.

These skills last much longer than the emotions that initiated them. Years later, that foundation of athletic movement might develop into a scholarship as a college athlete or the communication skills may blossom into a job offer as a business manager. The happiness that promoted the exploration and creation of new skills has long since ended, but the skills themselves live on.

The benefits of positive emotions don't stop after a few minutes of good feelings subside. In fact, the biggest benefit that positive emotions provide is an enhanced ability to build skills and develop resources for use later in life.

It's Friday again

From CPR Training Center

It's Friday again! That means quote of the day Friday.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore, Dream, Discover. –Mark Twain

Enjoy your weekend everyone and we will see you on Monday!

Unlikely Heroes

I ran across an article the other day at KOMONEWS that relates to the importance on understanding how to do CPR.

TULALIP, Wash. -- Two Snohomish County teenagers are being hailed as heroes for saving the life of a stranger.

Hailey Enick and Jasmine Daniels, both freshmen at Everett High School, were in Tulalip Saturday night when they pulled in to a McDonald's, they said. Enick's mother wanted to take a photo of the lunar eclipse while the group was on their way home from picking up Hailey's birthday cake.

It turns out that side trip would become a life-saving rescue mission.

"(The man) wasn't moving at all. His friend was slapping him and putting water on him," said Daniels, who is 15 years old. "Everyone was yelling, 'call 911!' His eyes were, like, in the back of his head and he wasn't breathing."

She had learned CPR in a high school health class in the Fall. Enick had taken the same two-day training course just last month. The best friends decided to try it on the man, who appeared to be overdosing.

"I was nervous. 'Is it going to work? Is it not going to work?'" Enick said. "I never thought I'd actually have to use (what we learned)."

"Turns out we had just done Everett High School three weeks ago," said Tim Key, chief of EMS for Everett Fire Department. "They had gotten the training then, so it was very fortuitous timing."

The girls took turns doing compressions on the stranger for about five minutes until help arrived.

"After, like, five minutes he started gasping for air," Daniels said. "He didn't completely come into consciousness until he got what I think was insulin from the medics."

Amazing story! These girls are heroes. Now they learned CPR and were able to save this man's life.

You can read the rest of the story here.


With that being said we have training courses all year round and our schedule can be found here.

CPR Class Schedules

Healthy Diet - Healthy Heart

A healthy heart and activity

A healthy heart requires being physically active and maintaining a healthy diet. Improving your diet lowers your risk for heart disease in many ways, including helping to lower high cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar and insulin levels, as well as preventing obesity and improving the function of your heart and blood vessels. Sometimes life can be busy and getting to the gym isn't always possible, so what can we do.

I found a list at webmd that was intriguing:

• Glance at the wall clock and rip off a minute's worth of jumping jacks. If you're a beginner, try the low-impact version (raise your right arm and tap your left toe to the side while keeping your right foot on the floor; alternate sides)
• Do a football-like drill of running in place for 60 seconds. Get those knees up! (Beginners, march in place.)
• Simulate jumping rope for a minute: Hop on alternate feet, or on both feet at once. An easier version is to simulate the arm motion of turning a rope, while alternately tapping the toes of each leg in front.

A few less aggressive:

• Sitting in your chair, lift one leg off the seat, extend it out straight, hold for 2 seconds; then lower your foot (stop short of the floor) and hold for several seconds. Switch; do each leg 15 times.
• To work your chest and shoulders, place both hands on your chair arms and slowly lift your bottom off the chair. Lower yourself back down but stop short of the seat, hold for a few seconds. Do 15 times.
• To stretch your back and strengthen your biceps, place your hands on the desk and hang on. Slowly push your chair back until your head is between your arms and you're looking at the floor. Then slowly pull yourself back in. Again, 15 of these.

Those are just a few things you can do when time doesn't permit you to get to the gym, something is better than nothing.

A healthy heart and the foods you eat

Organic fruits and vegatables, nuts, and fish which are rich in omega-3 fatty acids which can help reduce heart disease are a great starting point for a heart healthy diet. Omega-3 fatty acids found in most fish may decrease triglycerides, lower blood pressure, reduce blood clotting, decrease stroke and heart failure risk, reduce irregular heartbeats, and in children may improve learning ability. Eating at least one to two servings a week of fish, particularly fish that's rich in omega-3 fatty acids, appears to reduce the risk of heart disease, particularly sudden cardiac death.

Here is a link from helpguide that shows an eat more and eat less chart to help you begin a heart healthy diet.

TGIF

But as delightful as Fridays are, don’t wish the week away for them. Every day (yes, even Mondays) have the potential to be the most awesome day of your life. Have a great weekend everyone!

Hands Only CPR Can Save Lives

According to the American heart Association most people who experience cardiac arrest at home, work or in a public location die because they don't receive immediate CPR from someone on the scene. As a bystander, don't be afraid. Your actions can only help.

When calling 911, you will be asked for your location. Be specific, especially if you’re calling from a mobile phone as that is not associated with a fixed address. Answering the dispatcher’s questions will not delay the arrival of help.

If you see a teen or adult suddenly collapse, call 9-1-1 and push hard and fast in the center of the chest to the beat of the classic disco song "Stayin' Alive." CPR can more than double a person's chances of survival, and "Stayin' Alive" has the right beat for Hands-Only CPR.

We at CPR Training Center have courses to teach CPR for certification, re-certification and industry professionals, but to know that anyone can practice even the simplest form of CPR could be the difference in saving someones life in a critical situation is amazing.

As I find good reads and stories I will post them for you the readers to enjoy and be educated by.

Thank you for reading!