Thursday, July 30, 2009

Solutions to Eliminate Stress

Food & relaxation really play an important part in taking stress out of your life. See what a good job it did for this little guy?....




Now, here's a three part series of stress resolutions, the first two being written by experts in their field and links you can click on. The third one is written by yours truly who has managed to get expertly stressed and you can just click all over the place...in fact, that will even help de-stress you!!

"Top 10 Ways to De-Stress and Eat Less
Instead of comfort food, try these tips.
By Kathleen M. Zelman, MPHWebMD Weight Loss Clinic-Feature


Do you turn to food whenever you're stressed out? Stress-related food behaviors can be changed. Here are 10 tips to help you find better ways to deal with stress:

Fit in fitness every day. Getting regular physical activity works wonders in coping with stress. Give your stress to the pavement or the treadmill and let it go from your body. Staying active in winter elevates your mood and reduces stress.


Enjoy natural sunlight, especially in the winter. It can be depressing to be stuck indoors during the shortened days of winter, but a brisk walk in the sunshine can be a real mood enhancer.

Keep up your journal every day. Self-monitoring your food, fitness, and emotional feelings is an excellent way to become more aware of your triggers and behavioral patterns.

Don't deprive yourself of enjoying the foods you love, for this only leads to bingeing. Instead, plan to eat a small portion of the desired foods, eat it slowly, and savor every mouthful.
Set some ground rules about eating (such as only eat while seated, no food after 9 p.m., no second helpings, etc.).


Visit our community boards regularly and let your friends and professional staff help you. Research has shown that staying connected is one of the most important aspects of dealing with stress and sticking to your eating plan.

Identify the situations that cause overeating and develop a list of how you will handle these challenges. Be realistic. Talk it over with your buddies that face similar stressors to find realistic solutions that will help you manage the stress.


Relax. Give yourself 15 minutes each day of peace and quiet, a time to be reflective, meditate, or simply unwind. Soaking in a hot bubble bath can help release your troubles into thin air.


Breaking free from the family, a breath of fresh air, or escaping to a quiet room will energize and empower you.


Be good to yourself. Have a list of motivational sayings that inspire and strengthen your resolve. Use affirmations daily to help you feel good about yourself and your mission to lose weight.


Eat healthfully. Proper nutrition promotes health, well-being, and rejuvenation, which in turn enhances your resilience to stress. "


Here is the second in this series....


"There are two lessons that everyone needs to learn in order to be healthy. The first lesson is that stress is a natural and necessary part of life. We feel stress when we feel threatened or when we sense something is causing us to feel unsettled or unbalanced. It is normal. The second lesson that we need to learn is that too much stress can be detrimental to our health. Which is why learning how to de-stress is important.


There are simple things that you can do each day to help your mind unwind so that your body can relax and recuperate from the events of the day. Below are a few different de-stressing exercises that you can do that will help you feel better almost instantly.

Tip One: Take a Stroll
It doesn't matter if it is only for a couple of minutes. Walk away, walk outside, take a walk around the office building. Just get away and breathe, change your focus to the birds singing, the funny lady answering the phone, the way the leaves blow in the wind. Get out, get away and change your focus.

Tip Two: Meditate
When you meditate you force your mind to let go and not focus on anything other than your breathing. We all struggle letting go of things, especially when they hit a nerve and we haven't been able to come a resolution on it. Meditation takes that all away. You can meditate to go to your "happy place," or meditate and focus on the way your body takes air in and out. The goal is for you to feel better. Incidentally, mediation doesn't have to take hours. You can meditate for only minutes and it can be just as effective.

Tip Three: Listen to Your Favorite Tunes
Music sets a mood, it can make you cry, it can make you sing, it can make you feel good. Keep a CD of your favorite feel good music handy and whenever you are feeling stressed pop the CD in and listen to a song or two. If you are on your way home from work, pop the CD in and play it full blast on the way home. Let the music take over.

Tip Four: Sip Some Herbal Tea
When we are stressed the last thing in the world we need is caffeine, so skip the can of cola or the cup of coffee and opt for one of your favorite herbal teas. Chamomile is especially nice when you are trying to relax, so is peppermint or "sleepy time" tea.

Tip Five: Breathe
Sometimes all you have to do is stop long enough to breathe. Take a nice deep breath. Slow deep breath in and slow deep breath out. The oxygen will help everything in your body open up and relax, re-energizing you so that you can face the rest of your day with a clear head.
I have even more tips for you but I couldn't fit them all to this article. That's why I have a whole book for you about how to eliminate stress. You can download it here: http://howtoeliminatestress.com/ - I promise you: If you follow my tips, you WILL get rid of your stress. See you there. :)
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nick_W._Lang"


Here is the third and final 'pseudo expert' with pseudo solutions in this pseudo world for pseudo people (isn't pseudo just a fun word?)


When feeling stressed about the prospect of having to use your friendly pooper scooper, try something new and innovative with your dog (or cat or mouse or mini cow or sheep etc.) Have THEM do the pooper scooping. Remember training them can not only be fun, fun, fun, but it can de-stress you as well as all the people around you as you go through the training regimen...


Take a swim in a kiddie pool and you too can look happy and relaxed like this little guy....




Clown around with a friend and make sure you honk those big noses as you stroll along a crowded street, de-stressing all those around you.....

Have a good belly laugh by renting your favorite funny movie over again or reading hilarious funny books....




Look all around you, there are funny things everywhere ...even sign people can be your friendly comedians....



Always remember to take your 'happy pills' even if they are pretend and do it with your pretend friends and then have a pretend party...CAUTION: This just might NOT be one that you would like to share the joy with in a large crowd!!

Last, but MOST definitely NOT least is prayer and joyful prayer! Although not recorded in Holy Scripture, Jesus must have laughed several times...one I can think of off the top of my head might have been when Jesus saw Zacchaeus had climbed way up in that tree to see Jesus better! Trying praying to your Maker a different way...with a SMILE on your face as you are praying...



Psalm 100:1 A Psalm for Thanksgiving. Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth.
Isaiah 44:23 Shout for joy, O heavens, for the LORD has done it! Shout joyfully, you lower parts of the earth; Break forth into a shout of joy, you mountains, O forest, and every tree in it; For the LORD has redeemed Jacob And in Israel He shows forth His glory. (NASB ©1995)

*********************
Now let's see if you can let yourself relax and bring those corners of your mouth up to a big grin (belly laughs are also allowed!)....


Signs on Church Property

"Free Trip to heaven. Details Inside!"
"Try our Sundays. They are better than Baskin-Robbins."
"God so loved the world that He did not send a committee."
"Come in and pray today. Beat the Christmas rush!"
"Sign broken. Message inside this Sunday."
"Come work for the Lord. The work is hard, the hours are long and the pay is low. But the retirement benefits are out of this world."

"It is unlikely there'll be a reduction in the wages of sin."
"Do not wait for the hearse to take you to church."
"If you're headed in the wrong direction, God allows U-turns."
"Forbidden fruit creates many jams."
A singing group called "The Resurrection" was scheduled to sing at a church. When a big snowstorm postponed the performance, the pastor fixed the outside sign to read, "The Resurrection is postponed."


******************


More things You Learn From the Movies:

A detective can only solve a case once he has been suspended from duty.
If you decide to start dancing in the street, everyone you meet
will know all the steps.
Police departments give their officers personality tests to make sure they are
deliberately assigned a partner who is their total opposite.
When they are alone, all foreign military officers prefer to speak to each other in English.
***************
A Sick Veterinarian
A veterinarian was feeling ill and went to see her doctor. The doctor took an extensive medical history and then inquired about her symptoms and complaints. She rudely interrupted him, "Hey look, I'm a vet. I don't need to ask my patients all these questions. I can tell what's wrong just by looking." She smugly added, "Why can't you?" The doctor nodded and said, "Okay, I'll take your challenge." The doctor quickly
performed a physical exam, being careful not to ask any questions. He then picked up a pad, wrote a prescription and handed it to her. "There you are. Take these pills four times a day for ten days. If this doesn't work, come back, and we'll put you to sleep."
***************
A brunette pushes her Mercedes into a gas station. She tells the mechanic it just died! Up and died. After he works on it for a few minutes, it is idling smoothly. She says, 'What was the problem?' He replies, 'Just puke in the carburetor' She asks, 'How often do I have to do that?'
*************
All the redheads in the world decided to have a "redhead people convention". At the convention the chairman said to the crowd "Today we are going to prove to the world that redheads are not dumb! I am going to pick some one from the crowd to answer a question, and after he/she answers it, the world will know how smart we really are!" So he picked a man from the front row and he came on stage. The chairman asked him "What's 2+2?" "6" he said.
The crowd screamed "GIVE HIM ANOTHER CHANCE! GIVE HIM ANOTHER CHANCE!" So the chairman said "OK, one more chance. what's 4+3?" "2" he said. The crowd shouted "GIVE HIM ANOTHER CHANCE! GIVE HIM ANOTHER CHANCE!" The chairman said "Fine... but this is your LAST chance. What's 5+3?" "8" he said the crowd immediately shouted "GIVE HIM ANOTHER CHANCE! GIVE HIM ANOTHER CHANCE!"

~~~Thank You Lord for the blessings You have given me to cope with stress and YOU are the one true answer to it all, for You are LOVE.

10 comments:

  1. Your delightful blog and humorous stories at the end of your post de-stress my life. Blogging friends are truly a blessing!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm thoroughly de-stressed Marcy, after sitting here relaxing...and reading your post...the sun even just came out...it had been a cloudy day out there...the village is quiet this morning...I bet Diana had a late night with MTV and is sleeping in! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am so thoroughly entertained & inspired by you. I love the vet/doctor... too funny. Poop scooping puppy... i could use one of those!! Breathing properly when tense is the single most valuable tool I learned in my therapy trying to work through PTSD. It is amazing how well it works. Walking and tea time are my next runner ups. Prayer, always good. You know I write, *wink*, to honestly sometimes I think but, alas, it heals.

    I love your blog, love it love it love it. Thank you for you beautiful comments this morning. Being the child of a dysfunctionally tragic family is a lot of negative but it can also bring a lot of positive out in me too. :)

    Have a wonderful day my friend. Tammy

    ReplyDelete
  4. I LOVE the red-headed joke! I'm going to have to send it to a friend of mine that collects blonde jokes....just to show that red heads can have fun too!
    I knew that one of the first de-stressers was going to be related to exercise. I always skip that one... Hmmmmm.......maybe that's my problem.
    Thanks, Marcy....you are a gem.
    Smiles,
    Jackie

    ReplyDelete
  5. You forgot one really important way to de-stress ~
    visit with Marcy!

    Thank you, Marcy, you are a good friend.
    Love you,
    Eileen

    ReplyDelete
  6. Like they said, Marcy -- visiting over here is my daily, morning destresser, too. &:o)

    This is a great post -- and all these tips are so good -- if I could just remember to use them when I'm stressed! The exercise one I know I need to do more -- and the "breaking free from the family" one... sometimes hard, but it is good to remove yourself from that which stresses, huh? But, the joyful prayer one, I think, is truly the best one. That suggestion made me think of a series of drawings of Our Lord laughing and smiling. I posted them over at my place this morning for you!
    Smiles and Hugs today, Marcy!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I am going to make you the fortune teller in our circus in the village. Today was very stressfull and your post was very helpfull, truely Marcy, Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  8. oh cute photos and crazy laughs!! i love the top one of the puppy in the food :-)

    ReplyDelete
  9. De-stress = read Marcy! I don't believe anyone could ever visit here just once. You HAVE to come back.

    Great post as usual, dear friend.

    love, Angie, xx

    ReplyDelete

Comments are blessings too...