9 Steps to Avoiding Breast Cancer | Self-Compassion and Healing with Body Inheritance | Orchids & Clever Sex

9 Steps Against Cancer

Women & Roses | Mayo Clinic’s 9 Steps for Cancer Prevention & Healthy Aging AOC Health & Happiness

9 Steps for Older Women to Avoid Cancer

The Mayo Clinic has issued their guidelines for postmenopausal women to avoid getting cancer. The strongly-suggested ‘rules’ for living are based on data from nearly 30,000 women ages 55 to 69, who were tracked for 13 years. Presently one in three women will develop cancer in her lifetime.

“Our study suggests that older women may be able to have a fairly large impact on their cancer risk by not smoking, controlling body weight, exercising and eating a healthy balanced diet,” says Dr. James Cerhan, of the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine.

The Mayo Clinic’s Big 9

1. Having a body mass index less than 25.

2. Having gained no more than 11 pounds since age 18.

3. Engaging in daily moderate and weekly vigorous activity. 

4. Eating five or more servings of fruit and veggies a day.

5. Eating more than 400 grams (14 ounces) of complex carbohydrates a day. Read on.

Seeking Self-Compassion

Ellen Gayda on Self-Compassion vs Emotional Detachment & Body Nurturing AOC Private Studio

A new study from researchers at the University of Arizona says that self-compassion is a key attribute in healing from the pain commonly felt by the newly divorced. The researchers concluded that a combination of kindness toward oneself, recognition of common humanity, and the ability to let painful emotions pass ‘can promote resilience and positive outcomes in the face of divorce.’

The study appears in an upcoming issue of the journal Psychological Science.

This concept of ‘self-compassion’ is high on our radar, as I write about my recovery from a serious gym injury that has haunted me for almost two years and my good fortune of connecting with Philadelphia body psychotherapist and now good friend Elle Gayda.

I mentioned to Ellen new research on a previously-posted AOC article Ballerinas Emotionally Detached from Bodies vs Meditation Practitioners AOC Body & Culture.

In research that comes perfectly timed for the size 0 body debate and the pursuit of ‘Black Swan’ bodies as the ideal beauty body in women, researchers found that ballet dancers who devote enormous focus and self discipline developing precise control over their bodies lack the mind-body connection in most other people.

The study published in the journal ‘Emotion’ December 2010 found that veteran practitioners of Vipassana or mindfulness meditation — a technique focused on observing thoughts, feelings, breathing and heartbeat, without judgment — showed the closest mind-body connection.

Orchids & Sex

Edith Vilkeviciute | Solve Sundsbo | Vogue Japan November 2011 | ‘Beauty: This Soft Embrace’ AOC Sensually Yours

Edita Vilkeviciute is lensed by Sølve Sundsbø in ‘Beauty: This Soft Embrace’ for Vogue Japan’s November 2011 issue. Orchids are a great symbol of the fusion of beauty and sensuality in females and in nature. 

Considering the Earth in all its plenitude, I am startled to read that orchids are the largest and most diverse plant family on the planet, consisting of between 20,000 and 30,000 varieties.

The sensually explicit orchids — always in my home — represent 8 percent of flowering species, and botanists say their bewildering beauty has one single aim: pollination. In a new book ‘Deceptive Beauties: The World of Wild Orchids’, the biologist now photographer Christian Ziegler reminds us that makes orchids truly unique is the way each species adapts to attract individual insect species for pollination.

The natural temptation offered by orchids is always the same: sex.