Word-Of-the-Week #785: Uptight
August 22, 2019 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word-Of-the-Week #785: Uptight
Uptight – what you become when you don’t take time for relaxation!
So, how did you do relaxing last week? Were you able to reduce your stress by deep breathing? Did you take time to plan your next vacation? Did you connect with your friends? How much time did you devote to being “unplugged?”
This week I will share the other four ways on how to relax and reduce your stress that was featured in the Time Magazine article titled, “Six Ways to Handle Stress.”
- Exercise Regularly. It protects the heart, which is often the first to feel the effects of stress. Studies show exercise also helps maintain the brain’s ability to change focus quickly from one situation to another.
One of the things I love to do is walk. I don’t listen to head phones; I use it as my creative quiet time. Also, Pilates has been a life saver. I breathe completely differently as a result.
- Eat Plenty of Fruits & Vegetables. The antioxidants and other ingredients they contain counter-balance the inflammatory proteins the body produces under stress.
This is very easy for us. You’ve heard about Meatless Mondays? Well we don’t eat meat (but lots of wild fish) during the week and may splurge on the weekends. But even then it’s usually no more than 3 to 4 ounces. It’s very hard to gain weight, and easy to lose weight if you eat only whole foods.
- Don’t Stay Up Late. Irregular sleep increases the effects of stress on your body, setting you up for metabolic imbalances that increase your risk of heart disease.
This is only a challenge when we travel and have to deal with a lot of time zones.
- Do What You Love. Having a sense of mission about your job makes it easier to deal with inevitable setbacks. (You will still need to take those regular breaks from work.) And if you can’t find meaning in your job, look for it in a hobby or through participation in religious or community organizations.
Fortunately, we both loved our jobs and it never felt like “work.” I am still working part time (if the group is FUN) and both Chris and I have lots of things to do that keep us busy.
This week’s focus is how uptight you are. Do you exercise at least three days a week? If not, could you start by just walking? Are your eating a healthy diet of vegetables and fruits? Are you on a regular sleep pattern? Do you love your work? Do you have a hobby or an organization that supports your life mission?
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Word Of the Week #594: Proactive
December 24, 2015 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word Of the Week #594: Proactive
Proactive – acting in advance to deal with an expected difficulty.
Did you make time to “break a sweat” and exercise last week? How did that make you feel? Were you able to take time to relax? Did you make a connection with any of your social support systems?
This week is the follow up to last week’s Heidi Stevens’ article from the Chicago Tribune titled, “TAMING STRESS” featuring Thea Singer’s “5 things you can do so you will be less reactive to a stressor when one hits. It’s really important to be proactive.”
- Break a sweat: Exercise is a good stressor and it trains your brain to relax.
- Offline friending: Call a pal. Join a book club. Volunteer.
- Skip Ben & Jerry’s: Stress eating makes us feel better, but over time it wears down our ability to keep anxiety at bay. It kicks off a pleasure center, the same way drugs of abuse do. But once it wears off, the cycle starts over and we crave the same food to kick off the center again. This actually raises our stress levels and increases our cortisol levels. I recommend you think of something else that brings you satisfaction that will also kick off the reward center, but that won’t get you into that whole cycle again. Carrots and celery are not necessarily pleasurable. Do something that you enjoy: Take a mindful walk, read a book, jump rope.
- Meditate: We’ve seen a lot of research that shows people who meditate can begin to change not just the physiology of the brain, but the structure of the brain. The brain waves are very different in someone who meditates than in someone who doesn’t. That’s because meditation (also known as mindfulness-based stress reduction) actually creates new neural pathways between the brain’s right and left hemispheres which offers coherence between our brains’s analytical, time-conscious, logical left side and the intuitive, accepting, creative right side. A Psychiatry Research study concludes that participation in mindfulness-based stress reduction is associated with changes in gray matter concentration in brain regions involved in learning and memory processes, emotion regulation, self-referential processing and perspective taking.
- Show compassion: Acceptance of others is particularly helpful in warding off stress. The goal is to alter your perceptions of situations outside of yourself. It’s not about wearing rose-colored glasses, but finding ways to counter negativity. Notice something good that happened to you today and tell someone about it. Do something nice for another person.
Singer ends by saying, “People say, ‘Oh, his is so touchy-feely,’ but there is scientific evidence to back it up. I’m as skeptical as the next guy. But when you look at the science behind it, it’s really inspiring.”
This week’s focus is on being proactive and less reactive. Do you have a backup plan in place if something goes wrong? What activity other than eating brings you pleasure? Have you ever tried meditation? When was the last time you did something nice for someone? Have you ever done a “random act of kindness” to a complete stranger? How did it make you feel?
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Word Of the Week #593: Stress
December 17, 2015 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word Of the Week #593: Stress
Stress – mental, emotional, or physical strain or tension.
Does your stress level go up with the holidays? Do you feel more stress at home or at work? Have you found ways to help you reduce tension?
This week I am taking the liberty of re-running my WOW from 2012. Heidi Stevens’s article from the Chicago Tribune titled, “TAMING STRESS” caught my eye. She writes, “Facing down a man-eating lion is not the same as facing gown an Excel spreadsheet, but try explaining that to your body’s stress receptors, especially when they’re at maximum capacity trying to get ready for the holidays.
Stress has become a normal part of most of our lives with longer work hours, financial burdens 
and family strains. It doesn’t take much, especially at this time of year, to push us over the top.”
Thea Singer an MIT instructor and author of “Stress Less” says, “Once the lion is gone your stress response subsides. So much of what stresses us now, though is perceived stress. And when you constantly perceive yourself as stressed, your stress hormones never get turned off and you bathe yourself in a toxic substance.”
The consequences of stress is that it instantaneously increases your heart rate and blood pressure, makes your guts not function well and creates damage to your blood vessels and organs. Singer goes on to say, “There are 5 things you can do so you will be less reactive to a stressor when one hits. It’s really important to be proactive.”
- Break a sweat: Exercise is a good stressor and it trains your brain to relax. If you look at our culture, we’re not exercising regularly. We’re training ourselves for stress, but we’re not training ourselves for relaxation.
- Offline friending: Scientific studies have shown that those who have greater social support are less reactive to stressors than those who have less support. When we experience emotional pleasure, our reward circuitry kicks in. When we experience emotional pain, a different part of the brain kicks in. In those who exhibit more social support, the part of the brain that experiences pain is less reactive during “stress” than in those with less support. And the benefits apply whether you’re giving or receiving social support. Call a pal. Join a book club. Volunteer.
I will share the other 3 next week. This week’s focus is on how much stress you have in your life. What % of your day do you feel stressed? Do you feel more stress at work or at home? When was the last time you exercised? When was the last time you relaxed? How many social support systems do you have?
I LOVE feedback! Join my Facebook community on my FUN-damentals Fan Page.
WOW Word-Of-the-Week #436: Stress
December 12, 2012 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on WOW Word-Of-the-Week #436: Stress
Stress – mental, emotional, or physical strain or tension.
Does your stress level go up with the holidays? Do you feel more stress at home or at work? Have you found ways to help you reduce tension?
This week Heidi Stevens’s article from the Chicago Tribune titled, “TAMING STRESS” caught my eye. She writes, “Facing down a man-eating lion is not the same as facing gown an Excel spreadsheet, but try 
explaining that to your body’s stress receptors, especially when they’re at maximum capacity trying to get ready for the holidays.
Stress has become a normal part of most of our lives with longer work hours, financial burdens and family strains. It doesn’t take much, especially at this time of year, to push us over the top.”
Thea Singer an MIT instructor and author of “Stress Less” says, “Once the lion is gone your stress response subsides. So much of what stresses us now, though is perceived stress. And when you constantly perceive yourself as stressed, your stress hormones never get turned off and you bathe yourself in a toxic substance.”
The consequences of stress is that it instantaneously increases your heart rate and blood pressure, makes your guts not function well and creates damage to your blood vessels and organs. Singer goes on to say, “There are 5 things you can do so you will be less reactive to a stressor when one hits. It’s really important to be proactive.”
- Break a sweat: Exercise is a good stressor and it trains your brain to relax. If you look at our culture, we’re not exercising regularly. We’re training ourselves for stress, but we’re not training ourselves for relaxation.
I will share the other 4 in the next WOW’s. This week’s focus is on how much stress you have in your life. What % of your day do you feel stressed? Do you feel more stress at work or at home? When was the last time you exercised? When was the last time you relaxed?
Reader Responses
“What I try to do is not think about the word “stress.” If I put a name on whatever it is I need to do in order to meet a deadline at work or finish shopping or take care of something with my wife or the girls, then I will begin to think too much. That just messes up my head and guts. I don’t need that. I just try to do one thing at a time and then let everything else take care of themselves. In many instances, we let the things we have no control over take over our lives. We needlessly worry about these things until we are sick. None of us needs that. The best thing we can all do at this time of year is simply to take the word “stress” out of our vocabularies. That is half the battle. Great word for this time of year, Susan. Happy Holidays to you and yours.:” – “Warrior” Joe
WOW Word-Of-the-Week #294: Stress
March 12, 2010 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on WOW Word-Of-the-Week #294: Stress
Stress – what happens when you don’t take time to relax.
So, how did you do relaxing last week? Were you able to reduce your stress by deep breathing? Did you take the time to plan your next vacation? Did you connect with your friends?
This week I will share the other four ways on how to relax and reduce your stress that was featured in the Time Magazine article titled, “Six Ways to Handle Stress.”
4. Exercise Regularly. It protects the heart, which is often the first to feel the effects of stress. Studies show exercise also helps maintain the brain’s ability to change focus quickly from one situation to another.
One of the things I love to do is walk. I don’t listen to head phones; I use it as my creative quiet time. Also, Pilates has been a life saver. I breathe completely differently as a result.
5. Eat Plenty of Fruits & Vegetables. The antioxidants and other ingredients they contain counter-balance the inflammatory proteins the body produces under stress.
This has been very easy the past two weeks. Asian’s are known for eating lots of fruits and vegetables. Even at home we don’t eat meat during the week. It’s very hard to gain weight, and easy to lose weight if you eat only whole foods.
6. Don’t Stay Up Late. Irregular sleep increases the effects of stress on your body, setting you up for metabolic imbalances that increase your risk of heart disease.
OK, we’ve had to cheat a little on this one in order to get on our current time zone.
7. Do What You Love. Having a sense of mission about your job makes it easier to deal with inevitable setbacks. (You will still need to take those regular breaks from work.) And if you can’t find meaning in your job, look for it in a hobby or through participation in religious or community organizations.
Fortunately, we both loved our jobs and they never felt like “work.” It has been a bit of a challenge for Chris to retire and stop working, since he did it for so long and enjoyed it so much.
This week focus on reducing your stress. Do you exercise at least three days a week? If not, could you start by just walking? Are your eating a healthy diet of vegetables and fruits? Are you on a regular sleep pattern? Do you love your work? Do you have a hobby or an organization that supports your life mission?
Reader Responses
We did work on vacation planning this weekend, so we did not relax as much as we wanted. I did not take the time to breathe this weekend. So, once we get settled on vacation, I will do more of that. I know that when I have a lot of things to do I try to do them one at a time. Then I don’t think about it, and I feel a sense of accomplishment when I am done. My wife gets much more easily stressed than I do, so I try to help her with as many things as possible so she can concentrate. When I know that I am going away for a week, my stress level does diminish. Just looking forward to vacations really helps. Thanks for the reminder, Susan. I do plan on breathing more slowly the next week. I will talk to you when I get back. I am loving the MADNESS, though! Take care. “Warrior” Joe