Enjoying the journey is a day to day, and sometimes hour by hour, balancing act
I’ve discovered that it’s important to be conscious about how you feel and to remind yourself to pay attention to your mind (thoughts/feelings) and body (aches/pains).
Far too often I find myself sitting at the computer for too long. I keep thinking, ‘I’ll just get this done’ or ‘If I carry on I’ll have more time to relax later.’ But all the while, my posture begins to slump, my shoulders start to ache, my breathing gets shallow and by the time I take a break it’s too late. Damage has been done. It’s as if I start out most days like a beautiful flower in full bloom but at the end of the day I look as if I haven’t had water or sun and I’m drooping over ready to drop.
I certainly don’t start and end the day in full bloom! Gosh – what would life be like if I did?
Anyway, I’m not sure how you handle stress but for the most part I can deal with the normal day to day stuff. Throughout the day I get more and more stressed but by the time the day is ending I am able to relax and recover until the next day. It’s not perfect, but it works.
What throws my stress management out the window is when something large is looming – for example, a trip home to see the family, a house move, an on-going lawsuit, and upcoming public presentation (yikes) or anything that’s not a normal every day occurrence.
My theory is that I probably operate at the threshold of ‘okay’ stress management on a day to day basis which is not ideal. Perhaps if I was better at seriously managing my day to day stress levels then I could cope better when something larger looms?
When something larger is looming my body tells me…my shoulders feel as if strings are attached to them, fed through a central location on my spine and then pulled up through my head. They ache so much that I try to force them down, but it feels as if the muscles have locked into ‘shrugged shoulder mode’. It’s horrible.
Then I get this feeling that I’m not really in touch with reality. I feel displaced and tell people I’m ‘out of it.’
Now I’m sure you know that chronic stress has been found to be linked with the emergence of type 2 diabetes and increased chances to develop heart disease. Personally, I think that too much bad stress is the number one cause of every ailment – if you’re not operating optimally your body will eventually tell you…and if you don’t listen, your body will scream louder and louder.
How can we focus our energy on ways on how to reduce our stress levels?
Well – this is what I do and it works for me:
- Listen to a guided meditation CD. If you’ve never done meditation before, give it a go. Guided meditations work really well for loads of people. The way it works is that you listen to someone who talks you through the relaxation of your body, helping you to visualise nice scenes and to breath deaper. There are loads of free guided meditation MP3’s on the internet. Have a search on google and try one out. If you want my recommendations, let me know and I can send you a list of the one’s I use. You can also search for Hypnosis downloads – they’re the same thing.
- Do some form of Yoga postures! If you have Sky (or cable/digital TV) there is surely a channel that offers Yoga sessions. Most gyms offer sessions now and failing that you can get a book or DVD. (Read my Yoga DVD recommendation article)
- Breathing exercises. The way you breath makes a MASSIVE difference to your energy levels. If you want to feel as if you’re on top of the world, give Kundalini Yoga a go – it’s all about breathing. It’s not about postures, but about different ways to breath and increase your energy levels. After I first experienced it I thought I was going to be able to produce super human powers! (I also write about Kundalini Yoga in my Yoga DVD article)
- Journaling. Getting your thoughts and feelings on paper will clear a bit of space in your mind. By spending a few minutes to outline how you feel it can often help you to relax and realise that things don’t really have to be as stressful as you’re perceiving them. (Read my journaling article).
- Left/Right Yellow Pad Exercise. This exercise is magical. By brainstorming everything that worries you or that you hate or anything that is upsetting you, you then write down the opposite…by doing this exercise you sit down feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders yet you get up feeling light and airy ready to take on the world. (Full instructions here.)
Aside from those things, if you can exercise that’s a fantastic stress buster. Even if it’s just to go for a walk it helps your body to get rid of some of that pent up anxiety. I personally have the best intentions in the world when it comes to exercise but I think I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m never ever going to routinely work out. It’s just not part of who I am…
The important thing about managing your stress is for you to understand what’s available to help you out and then use it when you need it.
Don’t let others tell you that you must eat right, drink 10 glasses of water, run a marathon or meditate for 1 hour. My suggestions above are what work for me – surely what works for you will be different.
The key thing is to know how stress affects you and to know when you need to recover and repair yourself. Ideally it would be great if we could find a way to effectively manage stress at all times, but I’m not sure that’s possible.
Anyway – if you have any suggestions as to what helps you to manage your stress levels, please leave a comment below. I’m always looking for more tools to add to my armoury!
Big love. x
