Life can be a grind…. in fact, most of the time it is. In between working 40-50 hours a week, mowing the lawn, cooking dinner, cleaning the house, taking the kids to soccer games, well..… you get the idea. At the end of it all, we’re toast! The body reacts negatively to consistently high levels of stress and many times lead to things such as burn out, anger, depression, and even physical illness. The body wasn’t made to go “Indy 500” all day long.
Our bodies need to regenerate as well as our minds and spirit. Many people are drinking 3-5 cups of coffee a day just to get by. Our culture tends to treat the symptom and leaves the root of the problem alone. The result is never fixing the problem and in many cases, making it worse. Illness can generally be traced to one or more of three sources: environment, diet or genetics. Stress lowers the immune system, making you more susceptible to disease. Combining this with a poor diet and toxic environment could potentially create a disaster!
Improving the quality of your life increases your return from it. It also has a direct impact on our relationships, how we perform at work and our health and well being. I challenge you to inventory the different aspects of your life in order to determine its quality. Here are 10 Simple Ways to Reduce Stress and Improve the Quality of Your Life…..Today!
1. Evaluate: your current situation. Most situations that we perceive as stressful really aren’t a serious threat; if we reassess our situation we can reduce our stress significantly.
2. Breath: When our bodies become tense, we temporarily stop breathing. Our bodies naturally regulate the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide it needs by breathing naturally. Become conscious of this and take longer rhythmic breaths; this will both calm your body and help to focus your mind. Take 15 minutes each day to close your eyes and clear your mind.
3. Expenses: Lower them and consider working one less day per week. Imagine that! :)
4. Exercise: Do at least one if not two cardiovascular workouts per week. I like to swim and bike, because I’m fairly sure my running days are over.
5. Debt: Think of debt as in-laws that’ve been at your house for a month; it’s something you should consider getting rid of. If you don’t have the money, don’t spend it. This is the simplest way to stay out of financial trouble. Learn to use cash and keep a credit card for emergencies only. Build an emergency savings account if you don’t have one already.
6. Diet: Consider it and choose a healthier one. A trick that I use is to plan my meals in advance; this way I have a plan and it’s easier to stick to it. I also eat raw foods for one meal every day. For example: at least one meal every day consists of raw vegetables, fruit, or nuts. Your body’s getting more nutrition and it’s easier for your digestive system to break down, giving you more energy.
7. Relationships: Like your bones, you want em’ strong and healthy! We were built for relationships. A void is created when we aren’t investing in healthy relationships. Key word being healthy. As a result we fill that void with things like work, sports, pornography.…you can fill in the blank.
8. Passion: If what you’re doing every day from 9-5 isn’t your passion, consider making a change. If you’re not sure what it is you’re passionate about, create a little time and figure it out.
9. Love: Probably my favorite one. Give and receive love, know and be known, real, true, unconditional love; it’s the Greatest Power on Earth.
10. Spiritual Life: Cultivate one and learn to connect to the source of life, something greater than yourself.
Adam Curren
__________________________________
0 facebook:
Post a Comment