Leading a Healthy Lifestyle and Classical Conditioning

I grew up with the notion that breakfast was the most important meal of the day, something I still believe. I have always liked learning about new things. Keeping your mind "tuned up" helps maintain its youth. Health has become increasingly important for me because I have a family and like many others I am trying to ward off the aging process and lead a healthy lifestyle.

I have one of these candle holders, a smoke colored dish and a bud vase of vibrant color.

I enjoy writing, cooking and baking. I have always enjoyed art and antiques. I even own a few pieces of carnival glass. They are nothing that would sell for hundreds or thousands of dollars but nevertheless I find them to be eye-catching. I have become more involved in my writing lately. I have even started loom knitting to keep my mind active.

Yoga is practiced all over the world and what I really love about it is it can be adapted for anyone.

I have found yoga and meditation and are helpful with anxiety, provided that I keep up with them as a part of my routine. A cyclical or circular breathing technique when practiced in combination with tightening and relaxing muscle groups can bring a sense of calm and help relieve stress and anxiety. This practice can become second nature if practiced enough, reducing the time it takes to reach a relaxed state of being.

Your mind makes this connection with the aforementioned activities and the sense of peace they bring, similar to Classical Conditioning. If you’ve heard of an experiment with Pavlov’s dog in the field of Psychology, you know what I’m referring to. Classical Conditioning is a learning process in which an innate response to a potent stimulus comes to be elicited in response to a previously neutral stimulus; this is achieved by repeated pairings of the neutral stimulus with the potent stimulus.

Pavlov's Dog Experiment Simplified

During the 1890s Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov was looking at salivation in dogs in response to being fed, when he noticed that his dogs would begin to salivate whenever he entered the room, even when he was not bringing them food. In his initial experiments, Pavlov presented a stimulus and then gave the dog food; after a few repetitions, the dogs started to salivate in response to the stimulus. Pavlov called the stimulus the conditioned (or conditional) stimulus (CS) because its effects depend on its association with food.

Pavlov was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1904. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his pioneering studies of how the digestive system works.  

What do you do to be healthy? What do you do to help you relax when you experience stress or anxiety?