Carolyn Dickman from the Midwest Center offers these 5 in 2009.
Develop Healthy Addictions. “So much of our stress and our ability to cope are directly related to our health; particularly our diet choices and level of daily physical activity. The good news is, you can train yourself to develop healthy addictions. But the secret is to start with small, baby steps. A series of consistent, small steps will build the momentum you need to develop healthy habits,” said Carolyn Dickman. She cites the example of a co-worker who completely transformed his daily diet by taking small, measured steps, initially focusing on eating a healthier lunch. “He used to leave every lunch hour to grab a sandwich somewhere in town. In an effort to drop a few pounds, he decided that for just one month, he would eat nothing but a salad everyday for lunch. That was five years ago… to this day his lunch consists of a salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. This little success has built on itself exponentially over the years. A habitual breakfast skipper he now has a healthy bowl of Cheerios or Total with soy milk every morning with his cup of green tea!”
She said the same is true for exercise. Begin, for example, by making a conscious decision to walk one mile everyday for a month. The health benefits you will experience coupled with the sense of personal empowerment and pride you will develop for sticking to your goal for the month will drive your determination to walk two miles everyday. Then three. Who knows where this could lead.
Get Real. Carolyn explains that we have a tendency to overreach when making constructive lifestyle changes. “If you want to lose weight, you don’t want to start out with a goal to lose 50 pounds in three months. That’s not very realistic for most people and is bound to set you up for failure and disappointment which eventually leads to, ‘why do I even try?, I’m a failure...” said Dickman. She suggested keeping daily goals that are well focused, specific and most importantly, realistic.
Connect with your spirit. Practice meditation, relaxation techniques, yoga, Tai Chi. Or, develop a hobby that allows you to tune out and tune in to your inner self. The secret is finding a stress-relieving activity that you enjoy and does not require a lot of mental activity and lose yourself in the experience. Stress cannot exist in a quiet mind.
Get Selfish. Learn to get comfortable saying no. You cannot be all things to all people; you must meet your needs before you can truly give of yourself to others. There are people that will take advantage of you and your time if you let them. We all have those people in our lives that seem to demand more than their share of our attention. When you say no to things you don’t really care to do, when you set healthy limits and boundaries, you free up your time and energy for the things that you choose to do. As a parent and spouse, this can be difficult. But you can find the right balance.
Play! Play is a terrific stress reliever. Look for ways to get simple; to laugh and have fun. Children are very good teachers and pets willing participants. Playing allows you to loosen up, relax and be yourself and always leaves you feeling positive and refreshed.
UNDERSTANDING THE STRESS CYCLE by Tammy Barlekamp
Stress Cycle-A series of events that happen in a particular order (one following the other) that is often repeated over and over again.
Understanding this cycle is neccessary to overcoming anxiety and depression.
Understanding the cycle can alleviate some fear and discomfort.
Stage 1: Muscle TensionMuscles register internal and external stress. First sign we are stressed. Understanding and listening to your body symptoms is important to managing your anxiety and depression. Dealing positively with your muscle tension can help you begin to exit the stress cycle and regain balance and peace. If you deal negatively, then you will enter the second stage of the stress cycle: Emotional Sterss.
Stage 2: Emotional TensionFear is an emotional response that can lead to emotional tension. Emotional tension can be feeling fearful, tearful, moody, irritable, or confused. The more extreme the emotion, the more intense the emotional tension and fatigue. With adequate understanding and coping skills, you can alleviate some of the fear and then alleviate some of the emotional tension. You can not have a fearful emotional response without having a fearful emotional thought. These fearful, racing thoughts constantly bombarding our brain can lead us to stage 3: Mental fatigue.
Stage 3: Mental FatigueMental fatigue means your brain is tired. The signs to let you know your mind has been overworked are difficulty remembering or concentrating, feelings of unreality, dizziness or off balance. This is when you are most vulnerable and susteptible to phobias or obsessions. Our mind has little resilence at this point so the strongest most fearful thoughts seem to stick and become real. Avoidance of the fearful thought or activity is healthy until you are stronger, but after adequate rest and recuperation, you will want to begin to rehab your mind, body and spirit by facing the fearful thoughts or activities. Don't become stuck in a false fear. Staying stuck in a face fear will weaken your spirit and instill spiritual fatigue.
Stage 4: Spiritual FatigueFatigue of the spirit make us feel hopeless, helpless, feel like giving up, and too tired to go on. We feel trapped. No hand to help us up. No direction, no way out, no future. The good news is you can still recover completely and be even better than you were before anxiety entered your life. You have everything you need already within you to reclaim your emotional health. Create a desire and hunger to learn and grow and heal. Your life is important. Do not let false fears steal your joy and ruin your life. Changing your thoughts is all that stands between you and recover
Learning bad habits doesn't mean you have to stick with them "
We came to the point we are with depression or anxiety through repetition of unhealthy thinking habits and we can change them by practicing healthy, positive ones.
Control is at the base of most of our anxiety! Isn't that interesting?
Some depressions begin after high stress levels and therefore are alleviated when stress and anxiety are addressed with effective coping skills.
Here are some challenges: learn to begin speaking to yourself with respect, reduce caffeine and sugar in your diet, and start an exercise program. (info from Midwest Center)
Links:
http://www.doctoroz.com/walgreens.../stress-proof-your-life
http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/less-stress-5-minutes
http://www.sharecare.com/.../how-does-massage-reduce-stress
http://www.doctoroz.com/.../mehmet.../stress-fighting-idols
http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/how-reduce-stress-pt-1
Develop Healthy Addictions. “So much of our stress and our ability to cope are directly related to our health; particularly our diet choices and level of daily physical activity. The good news is, you can train yourself to develop healthy addictions. But the secret is to start with small, baby steps. A series of consistent, small steps will build the momentum you need to develop healthy habits,” said Carolyn Dickman. She cites the example of a co-worker who completely transformed his daily diet by taking small, measured steps, initially focusing on eating a healthier lunch. “He used to leave every lunch hour to grab a sandwich somewhere in town. In an effort to drop a few pounds, he decided that for just one month, he would eat nothing but a salad everyday for lunch. That was five years ago… to this day his lunch consists of a salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. This little success has built on itself exponentially over the years. A habitual breakfast skipper he now has a healthy bowl of Cheerios or Total with soy milk every morning with his cup of green tea!”
She said the same is true for exercise. Begin, for example, by making a conscious decision to walk one mile everyday for a month. The health benefits you will experience coupled with the sense of personal empowerment and pride you will develop for sticking to your goal for the month will drive your determination to walk two miles everyday. Then three. Who knows where this could lead.
Get Real. Carolyn explains that we have a tendency to overreach when making constructive lifestyle changes. “If you want to lose weight, you don’t want to start out with a goal to lose 50 pounds in three months. That’s not very realistic for most people and is bound to set you up for failure and disappointment which eventually leads to, ‘why do I even try?, I’m a failure...” said Dickman. She suggested keeping daily goals that are well focused, specific and most importantly, realistic.
Connect with your spirit. Practice meditation, relaxation techniques, yoga, Tai Chi. Or, develop a hobby that allows you to tune out and tune in to your inner self. The secret is finding a stress-relieving activity that you enjoy and does not require a lot of mental activity and lose yourself in the experience. Stress cannot exist in a quiet mind.
Get Selfish. Learn to get comfortable saying no. You cannot be all things to all people; you must meet your needs before you can truly give of yourself to others. There are people that will take advantage of you and your time if you let them. We all have those people in our lives that seem to demand more than their share of our attention. When you say no to things you don’t really care to do, when you set healthy limits and boundaries, you free up your time and energy for the things that you choose to do. As a parent and spouse, this can be difficult. But you can find the right balance.
Play! Play is a terrific stress reliever. Look for ways to get simple; to laugh and have fun. Children are very good teachers and pets willing participants. Playing allows you to loosen up, relax and be yourself and always leaves you feeling positive and refreshed.
UNDERSTANDING THE STRESS CYCLE by Tammy Barlekamp
Stress Cycle-A series of events that happen in a particular order (one following the other) that is often repeated over and over again.
Understanding this cycle is neccessary to overcoming anxiety and depression.
Understanding the cycle can alleviate some fear and discomfort.
Stage 1: Muscle TensionMuscles register internal and external stress. First sign we are stressed. Understanding and listening to your body symptoms is important to managing your anxiety and depression. Dealing positively with your muscle tension can help you begin to exit the stress cycle and regain balance and peace. If you deal negatively, then you will enter the second stage of the stress cycle: Emotional Sterss.
Stage 2: Emotional TensionFear is an emotional response that can lead to emotional tension. Emotional tension can be feeling fearful, tearful, moody, irritable, or confused. The more extreme the emotion, the more intense the emotional tension and fatigue. With adequate understanding and coping skills, you can alleviate some of the fear and then alleviate some of the emotional tension. You can not have a fearful emotional response without having a fearful emotional thought. These fearful, racing thoughts constantly bombarding our brain can lead us to stage 3: Mental fatigue.
Stage 3: Mental FatigueMental fatigue means your brain is tired. The signs to let you know your mind has been overworked are difficulty remembering or concentrating, feelings of unreality, dizziness or off balance. This is when you are most vulnerable and susteptible to phobias or obsessions. Our mind has little resilence at this point so the strongest most fearful thoughts seem to stick and become real. Avoidance of the fearful thought or activity is healthy until you are stronger, but after adequate rest and recuperation, you will want to begin to rehab your mind, body and spirit by facing the fearful thoughts or activities. Don't become stuck in a false fear. Staying stuck in a face fear will weaken your spirit and instill spiritual fatigue.
Stage 4: Spiritual FatigueFatigue of the spirit make us feel hopeless, helpless, feel like giving up, and too tired to go on. We feel trapped. No hand to help us up. No direction, no way out, no future. The good news is you can still recover completely and be even better than you were before anxiety entered your life. You have everything you need already within you to reclaim your emotional health. Create a desire and hunger to learn and grow and heal. Your life is important. Do not let false fears steal your joy and ruin your life. Changing your thoughts is all that stands between you and recover
Learning bad habits doesn't mean you have to stick with them "
We came to the point we are with depression or anxiety through repetition of unhealthy thinking habits and we can change them by practicing healthy, positive ones.
Control is at the base of most of our anxiety! Isn't that interesting?
Some depressions begin after high stress levels and therefore are alleviated when stress and anxiety are addressed with effective coping skills.
Here are some challenges: learn to begin speaking to yourself with respect, reduce caffeine and sugar in your diet, and start an exercise program. (info from Midwest Center)
Links:
http://www.doctoroz.com/walgreens.../stress-proof-your-life
http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/less-stress-5-minutes
http://www.sharecare.com/.../how-does-massage-reduce-stress
http://www.doctoroz.com/.../mehmet.../stress-fighting-idols
http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/how-reduce-stress-pt-1
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