A New Look at Stress

A friend passed this along to me and I thought it was a great way of understanding how stress affects us.

Stress
A lecturer when explaining stress management to an audience,
Raised a glass of water and asked "How heavy is this glass of water?"

Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.

The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter.
It depends on how long you try to hold it.

If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem.

If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm.

If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance.

In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."

He continued, "And that's the way it is with stress management.

If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later,

As the burden becomes increasingly heavy,

We won't be able to carry on. "

"As with the glass of water,

You have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again.

When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden."

"So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down.

Don't carry it home.

You can pick it up tomorrow.

Whatever burdens you're carrying now,

Let them down for a moment if you can."

So, my friend, Put down anything that may be a burden to you right now.

Don't pick it up again until after you've rested a while.

Recipe for Stress Reduction

Find a lake, preferably in the Laurentian mountains in Quebec and lie there. I did just that for a few days and I think my blood pressure has permanently been lowered.

Or do what a friend of mine did and stay home for a week and focus on things outside of work. Her renewed outlook on life made her realize how lucky she was in both her worklife and homelife and she is much happier.

Vacations, no matter where they are essential to stress reduction and consequently good health.

In the U.S. we seem to neglect this benefit. While the U.S. doesn't have vacation minimum mandated by law, according to an article by Braun Consulting , many European countries get 5 weeks of vacation. In the European Union employees get four weeks of paid vacation by law. In Canada and Japan laws mandate a minimum of two weeks vacation. with a minimum of two weeks mandated by law.

2008 Is The Year To Go Natural!

While that sounds a little racy, what I mean is that this the year that people will be looking at natural ways to improve their healthy and lifestyle.

All of us want to incorporate Mother Nature's healing ways into our lives but sometimes find it hard to organize it into a way that makes sense and is easy-to-use. What has worked for me over the past 15 years is what I call the Selko Method which is a 5 step approach:

1) Nutrition
2) Exercise
3) Stress Reduction
4) Home Remedies
5) Outlook on Life.

For ideas on how to incorporate these five steps into your daily life visit my plan.

I wish everyone a year filled with good health and joy!

Adrienne

A Healthy Connection

I often read that having connections to other people makes us healthier. I've also read that having connection to things larger than our own personal lives creates happiness as well.

As tonight we begin a New Year in my faith, I realize that my connection to a group of people that expands the globe and my connection to both the past and future give me a sense of purpose, fulfillment and happiness.

Looking to the past, many people worked hard to afford me the freedoms that I enjoy today and it is my responsibility to do the same for future generations. My life does matter, as it is a link from one generation to the next.

Being part of a larger group brings a sense of fulfillment that I can contribute through my children to the well being of the group.

In my case it so happens this group is my religion, but I would guess many of us feel a connection with a larger group based on ideas, cultures or activities. And this connection brings us a sense of peace which is the ultimate form of health.

My Cereal Is Telling Me To Relax

I'm not sure if this is progress or not but instead of the offers for very old videos, my cereal box is telling me to relax. I tried the new Lean Kashi cereal as it has high protein and I'm getting tired of eating eggs every morning.

So this morning I'm reading the box and it says Eat Right, Exercise and Relax. Relax! Who's tense in the morning? It goes on to say that meditation can reduce stress, assist the immune function and lower blood pressure. They recommend I take yoga!

This is all too mainstream for me. I'm used to my friends telling me I should meditate more and I already have many yoga tapes, but I don't expect this from my cereal.

Seriously though, I think it's great that the quest for natural health has reached, dare I say a tipping point, that it's now part of marketing. Any method through which people get the message that there are natural ways to improve your health is fine by me.

Small Healthy Accomplishments-- A Natural Stress Reliever

If you are like me you stress out about not taking more actions to become healthier. Well I found out last week that you if you take a little step the rewards are much greater than the effort required.

I decided to change my eating habits in an effort to finally get those few extra pounds off. I started with trying to drink more water. It's an easy step and you can do it in one day -- 8 glasses. The side effect is that you feel so full that you don't want to eat much. I found my sweet cravings begin to dissipate. So I took advantage of that to eat healthier foods and less food in general.

Why not increase exercise while I'm at it? I added that harder Pilates tape and hit my community Rec center more often.

And I got an unexpected result. I feel peaceful. It might be the fact that I have accomplished a little towards my goal of losing weight. It might also be because I am actively doing something and not getting upset with myself for putting it off. But I suspect the real reason is that the exercise brings out the "happy hormones" and melts away the stress.

I am just so amazed that such a minor accomplishment can make me feel so good!