Principles of Leadership

Many wish to be leaders. Few understand the true essence of Leadership, which is a compound of four separate ingredients,each one necessary and absolutely vital to all of the others. Those ingredients are:
- Clear vision
- Execution of tasks
- Objectivity
- Loyalty
Vision means one has the ability to see beyond today and its challenges, to set and pursue long term goals,yet stay in the moment enough to accomplish daily results. Vision and action, therefore, must always co-exist dynamically. Vision can be created from awareness, but it must continuously be modified by new perceptions. As one grows, as the world changes, one’s vision will require adjustments. Therefore, the essence of vision is to be strategically flexible, and yet, the awareness behind one’s vision is fundamentally unchangeable.

Vision without action is depression waiting to occur. Action without vision is too mechanical to be enjoyed. “Microwave thinking” (Seeking immediate gratification vs. allowing time by cultivating a great strategy) is the opposite of vision. When vision is present, and combined with a great product, service, or marketing strategy, leadership has begun and success is going to follow. However, one of the most important facets of leadership is the leader’s ability to execute.

Execution originates in decisiveness, but must include the ability to follow through on all aspects of that decision, long after the initial excitement of the moment has passed. Generally speaking, leaders make quick decisions and stay with them long-term. Non-leaders take a long time to make decisions, then shortly after, pull back from fully implementing what they have decided upon.

This is not to say that leaders never change their mind. Everyone has the right to change their mind, and surely a leader must claim that right whenever necessary. But leaders change their mind not because of fear, but rather because of new intuition, or insight. New challenges can occur, and may get in the way of execution, yet a leader is proactive and solution-oriented, rather than reactive and problem-oriented.

Objectivity is the ability to see things as they are, including one’s self. It must go hand in hand with allowing oneself to create solutions when necessary. A leader is very objective, very open, when it comes to noticing his or her shortcomings. They are unafraid of looking objectively because they know that their shortcomings don’t define who they are. Rather, they are what she or he must choose to work on, within.

Therefore, objective leaders are self-correctors. They are their own best students. To be a self-corrector is not the same as undergoing self-criticism, or self-judgment. It is a process of maintaining clarity, not slowing down for blame. Self criticism gets in the way of self correction because it further clouds the mind of the individual, blocking the clarity that is required for being an effective self corrector.

A leader’s deepest loyalty is to his or her vision. Second is their loyalty to remaining patient while pursuing that vision. Third is one’s loyalty to others who are inspired to be part of fulfilling that vision. Within true loyalty there is no room for guilt. Those who try to secure the loyalty of others based on fear and guilt are not true leaders. Quite the contrary, the essence of loyalty is found in love, trust, and the empowerment of others who are part of the vision.

A true leader will never confuse leadership with aggressive selfishness. Although this is often a path to leadership, it leads to achievement that carries with it emptiness and despair. Aggressive and selfish leadership is like placing a ladder alongside a tower, climbing up, and finding desolation. The Principle of Leadership says that a leader can and should strive to climb a ladder that is rooted and stabilized by vision, execution, objectivity, and loyalty. Once reaching the top of this ladder, the leader will find it to be leaning upon the tower of fulfillment./span>

Can Tea Reduce Your Stress Level?

Our lives are busier today than ever. We work longer hours and have hectic family lives, too. All of this activity can lead to higher stress levels, and the physical symptoms that accompany such high stress levels.

High levels of stress can lead to headaches, vision troubles, joint stiffness and other physical symptoms. Over time, these symptoms can turn into more significant physical problems. Long term exposure to extreme stress causes serious back and neck problems, psychological problems and even high blood pressure in some people.

In addition, stress causes our bodies to release the hormone cortisol. Cortisol often causes weight gain; meaning that too much stress can often make you fat. There are two important pieces to managing stress in your life.

The first piece to managing stress is reducing it where you can. Take a look at your life and remove the things causing you stress wherever possible. For example, does your high traffic commute cause you to arrive at work already stressed out? Consider public transportation, carpooling, working from home or altering your hours to avoid traffic.

Is your family life too hectic with sports and activities? Consider reducing the number of activities your family participates in. Keep the ones that bring the most pleasure, but allow your family a few nights at home with no activities.

The second part of preventing stress from causing you physical and emotional difficulties is managing the stress you can’t avoid. No matter how hard we try, none of us will be able to completely rid our lives of stress.

So, get rid of stress where you can, but then learn to manage the stress you have left. How you react to stressors in your life is critical, and it is something you can have some control over.

Employing stress reduction techniques on a regular basis can have a powerful influence on your ability to manage stress. Some of the most popular stress reduction techniques include:

Exercise – Not only is exercise good for the body, it’s good for the mind, too. Exercise can relieve physical symptoms of stress like tight muscles and can relieve psychological symptoms, too, since focusing on the physical and rhythmic elements of exercise can often relieve the stress that’s weighing on your mind.

Yoga and Stretching – Yoga and its relaxing stretches can be a great way to soothe the mind and work out the kinks in the body. Like other forms of exercise, yoga helps free your mind from your stresses and worries, too.

Meditation – Many people swear by their meditation routine. Meditation teaches your mind to “turn off”. Whether your meditation consists of 5 minutes of sitting in a quiet room with your eyes closed or a more complex routine including music and guided meditation, it’s a very successful stress reduction technique. When you teach your brain to “turn off’ for a few minutes, you’ll also find that you’ve taught it to focus more intently when needed. This can be beneficial when you need to concentrate to work out problems.

There are numerous other stress management techniques that work for many people. Pilates, crafts and hobbies, music and dance can all be great ways to relieve stress. The key is making the time to do the things that help you to cope with the stress in your life.

Watch What You Eat and Drink

When you’re under stress, your diet can either help or hurt you. Eating nutritious foods can make you feel better. On the other hand, foods full of sugar and fat can weigh you down, making you feel worse than before. So, eat a healthy diet to stay at your best even when stress is getting you down.

Some studies have suggested that you can benefit from drinking tea when you’re under stress. In particular, a study conducted by the Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Natural Products in China studied the effects of tea on women under stress. Fifty five Chinese women were studied over a period of time while under a regimen of oolong tea. The women’s stressors and physical symptoms of stress were monitored.

The women were divided into three groups. One group received daily doses of oolong tea, one group received barley tea and the third group received water. Barley tea is a very popular beverage in Asia and is made from barley kernels rather than the camellia sinensis plant, where regular tea comes from. Barley tea is considered to be an overall healthy beverage.

During the study, participants received their test beverage twice in the morning and twice in the evening. They were also subjected to work and deadlines designed to cause stress.

The results of the study concluded that the women who consumed tea showed reduced signs of physical stress related symptoms like headaches, stiffness in the neck and back and eye fatigue. Those participants receiving oolong tea showed greater benefit than those receiving barley tea. However, participants receiving barley tea showed greater benefit than the participants receiving water.

In addition to relief in physical symptoms, participants receiving oolong tea also showed a reduction in the amount of cortisol released by the brain.

This study’s conclusions provide powerful help to those of us trying to reduce the stress in our lives. Simply ensuring that we drink tea on a regular basis may help us to cope with the stress in our lives more easily and may help us reduce the physical problems that go along with stress.

We may even be able to decrease the amount of cortisol released by our bodies during stress, avoiding the weight gain that so often accompanies periods of high stress in our lives.

Tea is a delicious and healthy beverage. It has no side effects and is generally well tolerated by everyone. There’s no reason why we can’t all add tea to our diets to help us manage stress more effectively.

Smoking and Lung Damage and Emphysema - The Vitamin A Link

Vitamin A is required to protect the cells that line the airways (and other cells) from infection and the harmful effects of carcinogens (cancer causing substances). It is these cells first line of defence and functions as a barrier against infection and maintains their integrity and function.

Please note I do not advocate or support smoking. However, as many people find it very difficult to quit, any information that may help prevent damage caused by smoking should be presented.

In 1991 researchers T.E. Edes and colleagues reporting in the journal Nutrition and Cancer hypothesized that depletion of vitamin A can be induced by exposure to carcinogens (cancer causing substances) such as benzopyrene found in cigarette smoke.

The study was designed to determine if benzopyrene exposure depletes tissue vitamin A and whether beta-carotene might prevent the depletion. Rats were fed a diet containing benzopyrene supplemented with or without beta-carotene.

The authors noted there was a decline in tissue retinol (vitamin A) in the liver and small intestine by two weeks, with a 30% decline by four weeks. But, in the case of the rats fed beta-carotene, there was no effect of benzopyrene on tissue vitamin A levels. A note of interest is that the benzopyrene had no effect on serum (blood) vitamin A levels in both groups of rats during four weeks.

The authors concluded that a high intake of beta-carotene prevented the vitamin A depletion effect of benzopyrene exposure. They went on to say, “Further studies appear warranted to determine whether some of the adverse effects of environmental carcinogens, as found in cigarette smoke, charcoal-broiled meats, and industrial wastes, might be alleviated by dietary intervention.” (Nutrition and Cancer. 1991;15(2):159-66.).

In 1993 Edes and a colleague at the Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans Affairs Hospital, Columbia, Missouri, reported in a review that exposure to benzopyrene, a carcinogen (cancer causing substance) promotes vitamin A depletion in exposed tissues.

They noted that the effect is apparent while on a vitamin A sufficient diet but significantly, without a decline in serum (blood) Vitamin A. In other words, benzopyrene depleted vitamin A even when the diet was adequate in the vitamin, and this depletion is not apparent in blood tests.

Reviewing the studies to date they observed that although these studies involved dietary intake of benzopyrene, it would be realistic to surmise cigarette smoke exposure “would have a similar effect in the lungs and perhaps stomach and bladder.”

ScienceDaily reported on July 28, 2004 that while studying the relationship between vitamin A, lung inflammation, and emphysema, Richard Baybutt, associate professor of human nutrition at Kansas State University, made a surprising discovery: a link between vitamin A and emphysema in smokers. He found that a common carcinogen in cigarette smoke, benzo(a)pyrene, induces vitamin A deficiency.

In his initial research, Baybutt took just weaned male rats and divided them into two groups, one of which was exposed to cigarette smoke, and the other to air. In the rats exposed to cigarette smoke, levels of vitamin A dropped significantly in direct correlation with their development of emphysema.

The ScienceDaily article quoted Baybutt: “When the lung content of vitamin A was low, the score of emphysema was high,” he said. “So, the hypothesis is that smokers develop emphysema because of a vitamin A deficiency.”

In the second study, both groups of rats were exposed to cigarette smoke, but one group was given a diet rich in vitamin A. Among those rats receiving the vitamin A-rich foods, emphysema was effectively reduced.

Baybutt believes vitamin A’s protective effects may help explain why some smokers do not develop emphysema.

The ScienceDaily report further quoted Baybutt: “There are a lot of people who live to be 90 years old and are smokers,” he said. “Why? Probably because of their diet…The implications are that those who start smoking at an early age are more likely to become vitamin A deficient and develop complications associated with cancer and emphysema. And if they have a poor diet, forget it.”

In this study published in The Journal of Nutrition, Ting Li, Richard Baybutt and colleagues stated: “We showed previously that vitamin A deficiency per se causes emphysema. Benzo(a)pyrene, a constituent in cigarette smoke, induces vitamin A depletion when administered to rats; therefore, we tested the hypothesis that cigarette smoke induces vitamin A depletion, which is associated with the development of emphysema.”

They noted that Vitamin A levels decreased significantly in serum, lung and liver of smoke-treated rats. The researchers’ conclusion: Exposure to cigarette smoke induces vitamin A depletion in rats, which is associated with the development of emphysema. (The Journal of Nutrition August 1, 2003; 133(8): 2629 - 2634.)

It is worth noting that marijuana smoke contains more of the cancer causing substance (and vitamin A depleting) chemical benzopyrene than tobacco smoke. An average marijuana cigarette contains 30 nanograms of this carcinogen, compared to 21 nanograms in an average tobacco cigarette. (Marijuana and Health, National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine report, 1982.)

Once again, let me reiterate that I am in no way promoting smoking! If any damage can be prevented in those who cannot quit and those around them, then the information may help save lives and government costs – not to mention the trauma suffered by families of people with emphysema. Also note that benzopyrene is not exclusive to cigarettes.

Smoking is not the only source of benzopyrene

Benzopyrene is found in coal tar (coal tar may be found in shampoos and hair dyes), in automobile exhaust fumes (especially from diesel engines), tobacco smoke, and in charbroiled food. Recent studies have revealed that levels of benzopyrene in burnt toast are significantly higher than once thought, although it is unproven whether burnt toast is itself carcinogenic.

A 2001 National Cancer Institute study found levels of benzopyrene to be significantly higher in foods that were cooked well-done on the barbecue, particularly steaks, chicken with skin, and hamburgers. Japanese scientists showed that cooked beef contains mutagens, chemicals that are capable of altering the chemical structure of DNA.

References

Journal of Nutrition (Vols. 130 and 133).

McCullough, F. et al. The effect of vitamin A on epithelial integrity. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society. 1999; volume 58: pages 289-293.

Edes TE, Gysbers DG, Buckley CS, Thornton WH Jr. Exposure to the carcinogen benzopyrene depletes tissue vitamin A: beta-carotene prevents depletion. Nutr Cancer. 1991;15(2):159-66.

Edes TE, Gysbers DS. Carcinogen-induced tissue vitamin A depletion. Potential protective advantages of beta-carotene. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1993 May 28;686:203-11; discussion 211-2. Review.

Ginkgo: The Herb to Aid The Brain

Ginkgo Biloba has been used in traditional medicine to treat circulatory disorders and enhance memory.

Ginkgo is perhaps the most widely currently used herbal treatment aimed at augmenting cognitive functions--that is, improving memory, learning, alertness, mood and so on. Germany recently approved the extract for treating dementia.

Modern studies have also demonstrated the significant effect that Ginkgo biloba has on the cardiovascular system, relaxing blood vessels, acting as a circulatory stimulant and anti-inflammatory. One of the most important active ingredients, ginkgolide, has been clinically shown to be just as effective as standard pharmaceutical drugs in treating irregular heart beats. Improving blood flow throughout the body, Ginkgo biloba can also reduce blood 'stickiness', which lowers the risk of blood clots.

Studies have showed that the Alzheimer's patients who received ginkgo performed better on various cognitive tests than did patients who received a placebo. Improvements were evident in standardized tests measuring attention, short-term memory and reaction time; the average extent of improvement resulting from ginkgo treatment was 10 to 20 percent

It was reported that ginkgo's effect was comparable to that of the drug donepezil, which is currently the pharmaceutical drug of choice for the treatment of Alzheimer's.

A large clinical trial of ginkgo with more than 3,000 volunteers is being carried out by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine . The aim is to see if the herb prevents the onset of dementia and, specifically, Alzheimer's disease; whether it slows slows cognitive decline and functional disability (for example, inability to prepare meals); reduces the incidence of cardiovascular disease; and decreases the rate of premature death.

NCCAM is also studying Ginkgo as possible treatment sfor asthma, symptoms of multiple sclerosis, vascular function (intermittent claudication), cognitive decline, sexual dysfunction due to antidepressants, and insulin resistance. NCCAM is also looking at potential interactions between ginkgo and prescription drugs.

In a study in France a small group of elderly people with mild, age-related memory impairment were given a fairly high dose of Ginkgo. An hour after the treatment, the subjects' memories were tested by rapidly presenting short lists of words or drawings and then asking the patients to recall the lists immediately afterward. Their ability to recall the rapidly presented material increased significantly after ingestion of ginkgo.

This finding raises the possibility that short-term, rather than long-term, biological actions provide the basis for ginkgo's reported effects on cognition

Ginkgo should only be taken under the guidance of a knowledgeable medical professional. Taken with anticoagulant or antiplatelet drugs, Ginkgo can increase the risk of bleeding. It is also possible that ginkgo might interact with certain psychiatric drugs and with certain drugs that affect blood sugar levels.