When you read those two words, what comes to mind? For me, it’s pots full of colorful flowers, walks on the beach, swims in the ocean, fresh producegrown locally, and time spent with friends outside for drinks and food. Why? Because the glass is refillable!
Summer seems designed to de-stress us and boost our mood. (And if you get your bare arms and legs out in the sun for 20 minutes, you are banking some vital vitamin D)
The more I learn about stress and how the way we react to it contributes to our physical ease or dis-ease and symptoms, the more I believe in the importance of play, enjoyment, relaxation and keeping a sunny outlook — and managing stress no matter what. I tend to be a happy person overall, but when I limit my connecting with people or the outdoors, doing things for fun and taking regular breaks from work (even 15 minutes to step out and get some fresh air), I feel tense and get grumpy. Tense and Grumpy are not optimal states for encouraging health. This is certainly the case with weight. Tense and Grumpy raise cortisol levels…which makes maintaining a healthy weight difficult and losing weight nearly impossible.
For years I worked in the fast-paced world of high-rise construction. I lived with a LOT of stress and I believed that stress as a health menace for the majority of us was over blown. People in war torn countries or war torn homes, caretakers and people who are starving had “meaningful” stress in my mind; the kind that can destroy health. The ordinary busy person with too much to do and not enough time to get to the farmer’s market and yoga, well, that just didn’t seem to register on my reasons-for-concern list. I thought that what I was experiencing was just “normal”…”ordinary.” Ah, was I ever wrong — and the distinction lies in how we see and react to the situations in our lives, not how ordinary or out of the ordinary they are. For so many people, the COVID19 atmosphere has been a huge stressor. It has actually combined Ordinary with Out of the Ordinary. Enter Tense and Grumpy!! This is why I have teamed up with my friend and colleague Ann Greco to create Wednesdays At One - Standing Firm When Your World Is Shaking.
Hop online with us on Wednesdays at One (Eastern).
If you have a special concern you would like us to address email me, or PM me on Facebook.