Monday, January 14, 2008

The Solution is the Problem!


Stress Management is the art and science of convincing yourself that you are worth the extra time and effort to eat right, sleep properly, exercise regularly, and work on your positive mental affirmations. We all know what to do, but very few make the change to get "in the groove". The most common excuse is "not enough time", "too busy", etc.
Not that the excuse is not valid and some people literally have schedules or commitments so numerous that adding another layer of time commitment would shatter their minds! However, it becomes a time management challenge to determine what trade offs can be made to schedule exercise, meditation, relaxation, and proper eating/sleeping into the daily mix. To add them all at once could be problematic, but just as you break down tasks to tackle one objective at a time, this can also work with readjusting your daily patterns.
What about waking up or going to bed a little earlier so you can meditate, get more sleep? How about going to the gym before work (recent articles show several folks who get to the gym at 4:30am before work due to children or other conflicts) or after work? Instead of watching TV, go to a quit room and meditate. Start to replace whole milk with skim, toss out the cookies and replace with apples,oranges, bananas, or nuts. Reduce portions and think "calories".
All of these and more are the ways you can start to turn your life around to feel and be better. Losing weight and knowing you are doing exercise to improve your health ups your self esteem and literally makes you feel better and increase your metabolism. Weight training helps burn more calories and starts to define your body leading to lower weight and higher self esteem.
There is nothing bad in any of the activities and nothing but good in the result. In addition to getting in shape and feeling good, you will be increasing your stress tolerance when the inevitable crises enters your life.
The reason airlines want to adults to use the oxygen mask first is that you need to be capable to help younger/older, less capable people. The same applies to being in shape and having stress tolerance.
It is the toughest transition you will make, but when you finally decide to include the "four leg" program of exercise, mindfulness, eating and relaxation into to your lifestyle, you will be a content, happy person, with stress resiliency and longevity.
Come see us at www.stressless.com and let us help you get in the groove.
Stress Coach