Relaxation

Do you treat Saturday and Sunday as the weekEND or as a weekEXTENSION? Your answer carries a lot of weight with your health. According to Reuters, a lack of weekend rest and relaxation puts your heart at risk. If you’re like me, that’s one of the last things you want to risk!

A little R&R is also essential to your mental health. Monday - Friday is spent at a break neck pace. Whether you actually realize it or not, you’re turned ON and turned UP each of those days, and it takes its toll. When the weekend rolls around, the body and the mind need….even crave…..being turned OFF and turned DOWN. It not only provides much-needed rest and relaxation, it serves to recharge you for the week ahead.

So, hit the golf course, go fishing, grill out, take a drive, watch tv, or hang out with a couple of cats like Adam and Alexa (pictured above). They’re all about relaxation. In fact, Adam owns rights to the word.

Make each weekend moment count!
~Joi

…..watch the sunset.

…..strike up a conversation with an eldely stranger.

…..thrill your dog or cat with blowing the magic bubbles that thrilled you as a kid.

…..plant some wildflower seeds.

…..buy a birdbath, fill it with water and enjoy your feathered guests.

…..put on a Motown CD and get lost in the music.

…..walk barefoot through the grass.

…..lie on the trunk of your car and watch the stars.

…..take a walk in the park and breath in life.

…..eat a sno-cone.

…..find shapes in the clouds.

…..eat at a local restaurant and embrace the atmosphere.

…..make tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.

Make each moment stand still,
~Joi

One of the reasons yoga’s so popular is the way it makes you feel - inside and outside. And while the stretches have a lot to do with it, the best part is the meditation. Yoga forces you to breath deeply and concentrate….to get completely in touch with every cell in your body. (If you don’t, gravity will bite you and it isn’t teribly pretty.) But yoga isn’t necessary for meditating. You can meditate without any of the stretching, bending, twisting, or other contortions.

What do you think of when you hear the word meditation? Do you picture men with shaved heads wearing brown robes, in a monastery, with their limbs folded up and their eyes looking upward? It seems that the word kind of has that reputation. But, in reality, meditating can be done anywhere - and its benefits make it more than worthy of doing.

So what are the benefits of meditation?

• Meditation wipes out negative thoughts and emotions. It’s almost as if negativity is writing on a chalkboard and Meditation is the eraser.
• It lowers blood pressure. Think of it as free medicine that hasn’t any negative side effects.
• Meditation increases immunity. A huge benefit, wouldn’t you say???
• It reduces stress. Meditation is like a massage for your psyche. That’s a thought my psyche and I can both get behind.

So, How Do You Go About It?

First of all, try to clear out at least 10 minutes every day for meditating. If you can swing 15, the benefits will be even greater. The earlier in the day, the better. But having said that, many people swear by nighttime meditating. Mine comes along with my yoga which is actually more toward the afternoon. When we lived on the beach, my youngest daughter - Stephany - and I would do yoga by the water every night. Barefoot in the white sand with gulls watching and waves serenading us. I don’t think either of us had a stressful thought the entire time we lived there. I take that back, she’s a Cubs fan - stressful thoughts and Cubbies kind of go hand in injured hand.

When you’ve chosen your favorite time of day to massage your psyche, find a place and a position in which you won’t fall asleep, otherwise you will fall asleep. Once there, the rest is as easy as breathing. No, really. That’s all you do.

Allow your eyes to close. Focus your attention entirely on the sound of your own breathing. Feel your stomach expanding on the inhale and contracting on the exhale, allowing the breath deeper into your lungs and allowing every fiber of your being to relax. Anytime your mind begins to wander - and it will most definitely try, it’s like a 4 year old in a store - gently refocus your thoughts on your breathing.

Give it a try, I promise you’ll fall in love with the feeling. Whether you’re in a cabin in the Smoky Mountains (How amazing does that sound?) or in a chair in your living room, just go for it. Meditation just may be the thing the doctor didn’t order - yet far better than any thing he did!

Make each relaxing moment count double,
~Joi

Research shows that the average American has an adrenaline rush (the flight or fight feeling you’d experience when staring at the business end of a large mad dog) about 50 times a day. Fifty! Holy Moly. These rushes show up in the car, at the office, at home, in the store, in the restaurant….at 50, I’d say they must show up just about everywhere.

These incidences do a lot more than cause one to make a jerk out of oneself - they lead to insomnia, headaches, neck and back pain, stomach problems, and heart trouble.

The next time you feel one of these rushes coming to a head, experts say the best thing to do is actually very simple and can be done anywhere: Breathe. That’s about it - take six deep breaths, then repeat for several minutes. You’ll be able to clear your purdy head beforeanger gets a chance to show its ugly one.

Make each moment count double,
~Joi

One of the best articles I’ve ever read on coping with stress lies on the other end of the link below.

I love the paragraph devoted to music. It’s one of the first things I turn to when life turns on me. Sometimes it’s classical music I run to, but more times than not it’s country or soft rock. Keith Urban’s Days Go By is a real spirit lifter - it always makes me want to take on the world. And win.

Here’s the link: Staying Centered with Joan Borysenko

Make each moment count double,
~Joi

We all know that stress isn’t just an inconvenience, it can be downright unhealthy and cause a multiplicity of miserable side effects and miseries. We also know that it’s in our own best interest to deal with the stresses of life as quickly and as thouroughly as we can. Problem is, we don’t always know how. I mean saying it and doing it are two completely different things, are they not?

One of the tricks is finding what works for you, personally. What works for 1 or even 1,000 others may not work for you - you have to experiment with different techniques and methods until you find the one with the ahhhhhh factor. The one that takes your mind from swinging in the jungle just trying to hold on to lying on the beach just trying to stay awake!

Chrispian has written a great post on the subject. It’s appropriately titled Reduce Stress and can be found HERE. Enjoy!

Make each moment count double,
~Joi

P.S. I’m a loving, affectionate person and I love just about everyone. But if you’re one of those who, in fact, regularly lies on the beach - I love you a little bit less than everyone else.

Whatever it is that you’re doing to relax at any given time, be sure you give yourself enough time to reap the benefits. It takes the nervous system 20 minutes to let go of stress and to totally relax.

So if you take a 10 minute bubble bath, you’re only halfway relaxed. Imagine how the full 20 would feel!

Make each bubble bath count!
~Joi

I’ve been a fan of yoga for over 15 years. I’ve gotten away from practicing as much as I’d like to, but I’ve vowed to get back to an hour a day (another resolution - I think #6 to be exact!). I love everything about the practice, mainly the way it makes me feel inside and outside. I had even considered putting up a yoga and pilates blog a while back, but it just never materialized….yet, anyway.

So many of the fundamental teachings of yoga are parallel to our everyday life. It really struck me recently as I was writing an article about the basics of yoga.

For example: Think of the words that occur over and over again in this ancient practice:

• Discipline: To learn the poses in yoga, you have to be amazingly disciplined. To produce the outcome that you’re striving for, you have to work hard and not waver - you can’t become so discouraged that you render yourself useless. There will be some poses that are harder than others…there’ll be some you can’t hold for longer than 1 minute, let alone 3. There will be other people who hold their poses longer than you, possibly even better than you, but you’re not in competition with them - you’re in competition with yourself.
• Focus: While attempting a yoga pose, you have to find a spot (a focal point) on the wall ahead: As you go into the pose, as you hold the pose, and as you come out of the pose. If you look away even for a moment, generally the pose falls apart and you’re left flailing like a cat on a waxed floor. You can’t allow distractions to take your eye off of your focal point - it can be a struggle, but that little tiny eye shift (a.k.a focal shift) will be your downfall.
• Relaxation: To be able to practice the discipline of yoga properly and effectively, you have to relax your body and mind. Tensed up muscles don’t function properly - they just get in the way, so you’re taught to breath deeply, (and again) to focus your mind on total relaxation. If you take the worries and cares of the day into your yoga session you’re doomed before you even begin. The trick is to realize that sometimes you just have to shut the door on the anxieties of life - with you on one side, and them on the other. Every now and again, just shut them out entirely and free yourself from their bondage. When you’re ready to tackle them again, they’ll certainly be there….and you’ll be rested enough to deal with them.

Now, re-read the passage above and think about how each pertains to daily life. Get your mental juices flowing and see what ways you can come up with to bring more discipline, focus, and relaxation into your world.

Make each moment count double,
~Joi

If the holidays, of just life in general has you feeling on edge, below is a link to a very good article I came across when researching (of all things!) Chinese Healing.

So many people feel stressed and think that it’s something they just have to live with, until life’s circumstances change. Notatalltrue……you can change your outlook and responses right in the middle of life’s craziness. Doing so, of course, will help you ride out the waves life throws you without crashing.

Riding=good. Crashing=bad.

The article? Chill Out!

Make each moment chill out,
~Joi

Commercials during this time of year really crack me up. Everybody’s civil and happy sitting around the tables on tv, the kitchens are spotless, the ladies are cooking with their hair just so, make-up stenciled on, jewelry and clothes perfect and pressed. Right!

We all know what the holidays bring - extra work, extra money, disorganization, disrupted schedules and routines, and very often people we just don’t like all that well! It can mean arguing with your significant other about where you’ll spend this meal, or that meal…..how much time you were here, how much time to spend there, etc.

Thanksgiving and Christmas are beautiful holidays that cause an excitement and happiness that you can feel all around you, but there is also stress involved. Unless of course you really aren’t doing much of the work or entertaining - then this post isn’t something you’d need, you should be calm enough already.

I’ve found that the number one way to cope with all the extra stress and work is to keep your sense of humor. Sometimes you just have to laugh. I got that approach from my dad, and it’s a good one. The holidays are not any time to get irritable or cop a mood. When you do that, you ruin not only your holidays, but those of everyone around you. Decidedly uncool and immature.

When the great-uncle that drives everyone crazy shows up, endure it with humor. Think of all the great material he’s providing you with for future stories! Picture him in a sitcom on tv….wouldn’t you laugh at him then rather than scowl?

If you’re in the unspeakable situation of balancing your family and his/her family, hang in there - you have my sympathy, but it’s alongside my jealousy. I’d give all that I own (materially) to have back the people we once performed the balancing act for. We actually were lucky - my mom loved my mother in law to pieces so she always ushered us out the door to go see her. (I miss that mother in law very much. She was a character and a half!)

If you can AT ALL keep from it, don’t split yourselves up - go together as a couple. If someone has to have a meal earlier than ususal, or even a day before or after -so what? Be flexible, be forgiving, be open minded….and Good grief, don’t forget that sense of humor!

Something else that helps to destress is to just hang out with your pet(s) for a while. They are so therapeutic and so relaxing. I find that no matter what’s going on around me, if I spend time with my cats, I feel instantly better.

Finally, if you feel yourself coming unwound and there isn’t a pet in sight and laughter is out of the question, go off somewhere alone for about 10 minutes. Talk to yourself, do sit-ups, strike a few yoga poses, or just sit and stare at the ceiling….just grab a tiny little vacation and gather yourself back together. Then laugh.

Have a perfectly safe and happy Thanksgiving. Keep an eye on the holiday drivers, some drive almost as bad as me!

Make each holiday moment count double,
~Joi