Friday, November 18, 2011

STEPS TO REDUCE STRESS

Stress. As we all know, stress is that silent killer that leads to all sorts of health complications. Today I'd like to just share a few steps that we can each take to alleviate our stress levels. The steps are as follows: exercise, proper diet, proper sleep, and time management.

Exercise

Now surely it does not take a rocket scientist to understand the effects of exercise on human health. It's one thing to clearly UNDERSTAND the need for exercise, but it's something altogether different, to actually DO it!

So what types of exercise should we do, and how often should we do them? This will come down to a matter of personal goals and preferences.  As a general rule, with regards to health and reducing stress levels, we should each aim to take part in some form of continuous aerobic exercise for at least 30 minutes per day, and four days each week.

These exercises could be as simple as brisk walking, or if interested, we can utilize more complex exercises such as biking,elliptical training, or even jumping rope.  The idea is to work off stress, by elevating our heart rates for a CONTINUOUS 30 minute period, with each time out.

Proper Diet

Do you ever feel rushed? Of course you do.  In fact, we all live in this microwave society where we're trained to rush from the moment that we awake first thing each morning, right up until the time that we lie down for bed at night.  This rushing carries right over to our eating.

When it comes to eating, the MAIN change that is often most needed, is that of simply s.l.o.w.i.n.g. DOWN! This of course is EXTREMELY difficult to do, when working in positions where we are granted a half-hour, or LESS to consume the contents within our lunch bags. However, fast eating leads to ALL SORTS of digestive problems.

In addition to slowing down our eating, we should also strive to eliminate (as much as possible) FAST FOODS. Yes, I said it; STEP AWAY FROM THAT BIG MAC! So many of us have developed fast food ADDICTIONS, and you can only BEGIN to imagine the long term effects of a constant diet consisting of fast food.

A very natural alternative would be substituting fruits, vegetables, and/or meal replacement shakes.  Change is ALWAYS difficult. However, when comparing a change of diet, to changes in the state of one's overall HEALTH; it's safe to say that the diet route is the way to go.

Proper Sleep

There are literally THOUSANDS of studies that have been conducted on the correlation between sleep deprivation and illnesses such as: Type "2" diabetes, high blood pressure, weakened immune systems, etc.  With the inception of facebook, Americans are becoming more and more liable to forego sleep, in order to socialize on the worldwide web.

For those of us who wish to maintain a good work/life balance, seven to eight hours of sleep each night would be the ideal target. Sleep literally enhances our ability to deal with the ordinary stressors of life.  When we fail to acquire adequate sleep, we tend to wake up on the wrong side of the bed, and this negative energy follows us throughout the remainder of the day.

I should add here that each of these steps work hand in hand. It's much easier to rest at night when we exercise regularly, and also when maintaining healthy diets. Imagine spending your day sitting around and binge eating fast food, only to find yourself unable to relax at night, due to acid reflux, joint pain, stomach discomfort, etc. This would be a losing situation indeed.

Time Management

This brings us to our last step in the process; time management.  The quickest way to GUARANTEE a horrible day, is to wake up late, and to find yourself running behind to work. Murphy is sure to show up in these situations. You WILL lose your car keys. You WILL spill coffee on your shirt. You WILL have difficulty getting your vehicle to start, and you WILL end up stuck in traffic.

When you finally do arrive to work, covered in coffee stains, completely dishoveled, and daring anyone to knock the ENORMOUS chip from your shoulder, things are SURE to go downhill from this point.  All of this could be avoided, by your simply waking up as scheduled, and resisting the urge to hit the snooze button.

This same rule applies to the rest of our daily activities. It is VERY important that we plan our days, leaving enough time for the possibility of unexpected events. Poor time management can literally wreck havoc in our mental and physical health.

By taking each of the four steps shared here, we can extend our lives for YEARS. Simple steps that lead to MASSIVE change, is the idea here. I would like to wish you the best of luck, and I certainly do hope that you are able to experience immediate changes in your overall stress levels.

1 comment:

  1. You are on the level my man as many look away from the most basic ways of reducing a ton of stress just by not taking care of the primal needs. Exercise is so important it is ridiculous; if the body is working right the brain has an easier time and vice versa. When the body takes in food, it is not what the body needs the effect is gross, and the brain does not compute correctly. Now for the biggie, the brain is a huge factor in every atom of our existence and if it is not getting proper rest it is not going to run the body correctly; it stalls. I have a tip I like to add in because I find it peaceful and stress reducing producing endorphins without a lot of physical effort aside from my workouts. When talking with a colleague who also works for Dish Network about the launch of the Blockbuster Movie Pass I was blown away at the potential. First, welcome live streaming! Blockbuster Movie Pass will now be a combination of two of Dish Network’s prestigious packages the Dish Platinum and the Blockbuster by Mail package allowing me to stream thousands of movies with my laptop. Now I have access to thousands of DVD movies, TV shows by mail with unlimited exchange, which is necessary. It remotely streams directly to my laptop expanding my resources by a huge amount. Therefore, I can research the information I need from the film standpoint while looking into the media aspect as well, which covers the reminder of the research required for the blog. With a faster research system in place, I can spend more time writing out in Mother Nature, which I love, and it really gives me a break from everything else in my world.

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