Books we love

BOOKS WE

SLIM’S LATEST BATCH OF GREAT READS TO INFORM AND ENTERTAIN!

SHIVER Allie Reynolds

Five friends reunite after 10 years since the disappearance of the beautiful and enigmatic Saskia. When an icebreaker game turns menacing, they realise they don’t know who has really gathered them there and how far they will go to find the truth. In an isolated lodge high up a mountain, amid a looming snowstorm, the secrets of the past are about to come to light. RRP $32.99, Hachette Australia.

THE HORMONE REPAIR MANUAL Lara Briden

The Hormone Repair Manual is a must-have guide to understanding and overcoming the symptoms of perimenopause and menopause. Addressing common symptoms such as hot flushes, insomnia, mood changes, migraines, weight gain, low libido and heavy periods, Lara offers practical solutions of diet, lifestyle, nutritional supplements and tips for how to speak to your doctor about hormone therapy. RRP $34.99, Macmillan Australia.

DOG’S BEST FRIEND Simon Garfield

Dogs and humans: in the last 200 years no interspecies relationship has developed so fast nor come so far. How and why did this relationship begin? How has it changed over the centuries? Dog’s Best Friend investigates this unique bond by revisiting some of the most important milestones in our shared journey. It begins with the earliest visual evidence on ancient rock art and ends at the laboratory that sequenced the first dog genome. RRP $32.99, Hachette Australia, W&N.

HOW TO MAKE THE BIGGEST DECISION OF YOUR LIFE Dr George Blair-West & Jiveny Blair-West

Choosing to marry and share your life with someone is one of the most important decisions you can make in life. But with divorce rates approaching 50 percent in some parts of the world, it’s clear many of us need some help picking a partner. In this easyto-read guide, psychiatrist George Blair-West and relationship coach Jiveny Blair-West unlock the secrets to making the biggest decision of your life. RRP $32.99, Hachette Australia.

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WHY WOULDN’T YA? Jess Eva

Jess Eva wants you to change your life. She can’t promise to make you rich, quick-fix your relationships or help you lose weight. But she is going to show how to relax, get out of your own head (and others’) and start to see life as one big adventure. As Jess will show you, through her humour, mad stories and down-toearth wisdom, the worst that could happen is you’ll end up with a bloody good story to tell. RRP $34.99, Macmillan Australia.

RISE Mark Bouris

At a time of ultimate global disruption, who better to guide us as we re-set our goals and our lives than Mark Bouris, one of Australia’s most respected mentors and business leaders. Mark is the host of The Mentor podcast, as well as The Apprentice and The Celebrity Apprentice. ‘Anyone can better themselves, better their life, better their situation. You’ve got to think big. People have lost faith in the system, it’s time to empower yourself.’ RRP $32.99, Hachette Australia.

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SEIZE THE DAY

KNOWN AS THE ‘ALL-DAY’ SHORTS, MALO ARVO SHORTS WERE CREATED FOR THE ALL-DAY-ACTIVE MAN. RRP $69.

LET’S GET Physical

UPDATE YOUR KIT AND LOOK AS GOOD AS YOU FEEL.

PLANK AND PLAY

LEVERAGING THE PLANKING FAD, THE STEALTH CORE TRAINER, PAIRED WITH A FREE APP, IS A PORTABLE AND COMPACT FITNESS TOOL. PLAY GAMES ON YOUR SMARTPHONE BY USING YOUR ABS. STEALTH INCLUDES TWO FREE MOBILE GAMES “STEALTH SPEED GLIDING” AND “STEALTH CORE CHALLENGE 2” AVAILABLE ON BOTH ANDROID AND IOS SMARTPHONES. AMAZON.COM.AU. FROM $276.

WILD HORSES

THE NIKE WILDHORSE 6 KEEPS IT STABLE, SECURE AND LIGHTWEIGHT ON THE TRAIL. AN UPDATED OUTSOLE DELIVERS THE TRACTION YOU NEED, WHILE A FOAM MIDSOLE KEEPS YOU CUSHIONED ON YOUR RUN. RRP $191. ASOS.COM.AU

IN THE HOOD

THE MALO ULTIMATE TRAVEL HOODIE IS PERFECT FOR TRAVEL, LOUNGING, DOG-WALKING, WORK-FROM-HOME, COASTAL CRUISING, YOGA AND RECOVERY. RRP $149.

CIRCUIT BREAKER

Your future in the palm of your hand

By Shakti Selwood

PALMISTRY ORIGINATED IN ANCIENT INDIA AND MADE ITS WAY TO GREECE, WHERE IT WAS PRACTICED BY ARISTOTLE AND UTILISED BY ALEXANDER THE GREAT TO GIVE HIM AN ‘EDGE’ WHEN LEADING THE MILITARY. FROM THERE IT SPREAD VIA ROAMING GYPSIES WHO USED PALMISTRY TO HELP ADVISE ON OPPORTUNITIES AND OUTCOMES OF LIFE’S CHOICES THROUGH THE LINES ON THE HANDS.

The left hand reflects the past from birth to now, along with past-life memories. The right hand represents what you are creating in our reality through your fear or love, and your consequential choices and actions. Depending on length of main lines and intersections, your palm will represent significant events and potential opportunities presenting.

The shape, size, length and flexibility of your hands, fingers and thumbs are also considered when reading your palm, as your hands are moulded as a result of acting on your choices. The right hand is usually the main focus of palmistry.

The Fate Line - Life’s Purpose

The Fate Line is often called the Direction Line. The Fate Line indicates your sense of direction, purpose, fulfillment and meaningfulness in life. Your inner-contentment cannot be hidden from your Fate Line.

Career, business, wealth, and finances are imbedded clues in your Fate Line. Where you see yourself in the world, your confidence, belief in yourself, selflove, and what you can offer the world in service. A strong Fate Line indicates a person is mostly heading in the right direction.

There are several other significant lines on your palms that reflect and impact on your life, too numerous to go into detail here, but I will provide a summary of the most important lines.

Life Line may indicate the length of your life, but don’t despair if yours is short. It indicates health issues and curiosity. When you change your destiny towards your purpose, what you think and do changes too, therefore your Life Line adapts.

Heart Line can show how you deal with feelings, emotions and your relationship with yourself and others.

Head Line deals with reasoning and logic. It demonstrates your mental capacity and how you think. Your Head Line may also show whether you are an independent person who is okay on their own, or you need to be in a group dynamic to bring out the best in you to help others.

SHAKTI SELWOOD

Shakti also conducts Palmistry workshops 0427 443 302 shaktiselwood@gmail.com shakti-psychic-readings.com.au

Stress, ageing and asthma

RESEARCH HAS FOUND SIGNS OF FASTER AGEING RELATED TO STRESS AMONG PEOPLE WITH ASTHMA.

Published in August 2020 in “Thorax”, the research was undertaken by a team from Queen’s University Belfast.

In the study, the researchers compared allostatic load, “the wear and tear on the body” which accumulates as an individual is exposed to repeated or chronic stress, in adults with and without asthma; 9219 adults without asthma, 198 adults with mild asthma which did not require antiinflammatory treatment with inhaled corticosteroids and 388 adults also with moderate disease treated with inhaled corticosteroids in the UK. They used data which measured levels of stress-related biomarkers in the blood of each participant.

The team found higher allostatic load - early ageing - among even the mildest asthma group (those with doctor diagnosed asthma but not requiring corticosteroids). They found a person with mild asthma had an allostatic load equivalent to a person without asthma who is eight years older.

They also found those with moderate asthma (requiring treatment with corticosteroids) had a higher allostatic load than those without asthma.

Luke Barry, Research Fellow from the Centre for Public Health at Queen’s University Belfast and lead author on the research, said “This study provides objective measures of a relationship between stress and asthma. Understanding this stress-disease link is important for the management of asthma and in potentially reducing its lifetime burden.

“Our aim with this research is to encourage clinicians to consider stress resilience as part of an individual’s healthcare plan or treatment.”

The researchers suggest active management of stress or policies which aim to remove or reduce social disparities, such as income inequality, which contribute to chronic stress, may delay how early an individual experiences chronic disease in their lifetime or the rate at which their condition worsens.

Professor Liam Heaney, Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the WellcomeWolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine at Queen’s University Belfast and co-author on the research, said “Stress resilience may be something that could help patients in their daily lives to reduce the effects of chronic disease, and potential worsening of pre-existent chronic conditions.

“Practices, such as mindfulness-based cognitive behavioural therapy have been shown to promote stress-resilience and may be an important way to protect against the impacts of chronic disease.”

More at qub.ac.uk

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MICHELLE BRIDGES’ TOP 5 Fitness Resolutions

MICHELLE BRIDGES’ 12 WEEK BODY TRANSFORMATION (12WBT) PROGRAM HAS REVOLUTIONISED THE LIVES OF HALF A MILLION EVERYDAY AUSTRALIANS, WITH MEMBERSHIP NUMBERS IN THE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS, COUNTLESS PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL TRANSFORMATIONS, AND A WEIGHT-LOSS COUNT OF 1.8 MILLION KILOGRAMS.

Michelle is keen to help all Aussies achieve their health and fitness goals in 2021. Although many of us start the year with laser-sharp focus and the best of intentions, the path to success often becomes cloudy when the demands of work, school and everyday life begin to set back in.

With this in mind, Michelle shares her top five tips for sticking to New Year’s health and fitness resolutions.

1MICHELLE’S TOP 5 TIPS

MAKE IT MANAGEABLE

“When it comes to New Year’s workout resolutions, It HAS to be something manageable,” says Michelle. “Don’t set yourself up to fail by over-committing to something like ‘exercising 15 hours a week’. Start small and work your way up once you condition your mind and body to the act of exercise. Secondly, workout in the morning. Seriously, you’re far more likely to smash it out when it’s not the last thing on your to do list after a long busy day.” belief, planning and perseverance,” says Michelle. “The people who manage to stay on track when their routines derail recognise that life happens. As much as you can plan how you’re going to live your life to get from ‘here’ directly to ’there’, stuff will always come up which means the straight line from A to B may need to be reviewed. For example, if Plan A is that you’re going to go to the gym every morning before the kids get up, 5 days a week, then great – that’s Plan A. But make sure you also have a Plan B. What if one of the kids gets sick, or your partner’s away? Plan B might be to workout with some exercise videos on YouTube, or do a free 12WBT workout. Planning to be flexible is a great way to work around ‘allor-nothing” tendencies that some of us struggle with.”

2LUCK HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT “What any kind of commitment and achievement comes down to is self4BE PREPARED “Knowing that it’s impossible to do anything 100 percent consistently will safeguard your mind, body and emotions later down the road,” says Michelle.

5JUST DO IT “It’s really simple – get out and do some exercise! Especially when you’re feeling

3stressed. Start with just 10 minutes of something high-intensity,” Michelle REMIND YOURSELF THAT EVERY suggests. “There’s a lot you can do in POSITIVE CHOICE ADDS UP “Each time you make a positive choice, remind yourself of the different choice you perhaps would have made in the past and be proud of your new mindset and decisions,” emphasises Michelle. “Reflect constantly, to bring on feelings of pride and determination to keep improving. These feelings are hugely powerful a short amount of time! When you’re stuck in a cycle of tiredness, stress and inactivity (and maybe guilt) you need to do some form of physical activity to break it. Even if it feels counterintuitive. It’s like a snowball effect – the more you exercise when you feel stressed and tired, the less stressed and tired you’ll eventually become.” motivators!” Register at 12wbt.com