A Few Things To Help You Lower Your Stress

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Happy New Year! I hope your year is off to a great start so far!

For a lot of us the New Year can bring excitement of getting to hit the refresh button and start a new year over, but sometimes that can come with lofty goals that add a little extra stress and concern of not knowing how we can get it all done.

One of the best gifts we can give ourselves is taking care of ourselves in order to not only be the best version of ourselves, but also to be able to have the energy and brainpower in order to get through what needs to be done.

Unfortunately, we have to spend hours at our desk all day long and with that comes exhaustion, stress and distractions. As a “stress relief” speaker, I wanted to share with you all a couple of the things that I teach.

I’m sure you’ve all been hearing for a while now how “sitting is the new smoking” and “we’re dying at our desks” and all of those horrible statistics. If you’ve been lucky enough to miss those horrible headings, I’ll give you the cliffs notes version: We increase our risk of heart disease, breast cancer, high blood pressure, depression and type 2 diabetes by 60-125% depending on the amount of hours we sit each day. And, we lose 20 minutes off of our lives for every hour that we sit.

Plus, after sitting for a while, we get distracted and our productivity greatly declines.

Did you know that on average when we get distracted it takes 23 minutes to get back on task? My buddy and distraction speaker, Curt Steinhorst talks about this in his speeches and it is a pretty scary statistic, but luckily there are things we can do to keep this from happening.

Did you know that when we get triggered (think anxious, upset, angry, super stressed) it can take us up to 18 minutes to be able to calm down to where we can think clearly again? As an accredited trainer in Emotional Intelligence I learned a lot of interesting, yet frightening facts from the Institute for Health and Human Potential. One being that we also can loose up to 75% of our working memory when we are really triggered, which is why we sometimes get to the point to where we can’t even respond to people and shut down or even worse, lash out and say something we regret later.

So, what can we do to manage our emotions and stress during business hours to be at our best and more productive?

One of the best gifts we can give ourselves is to take scheduled breaks. Even just a couple of minutes of getting up and walking around, stretching or taking time to BREATHE can turn things around in an instant to help us be more productive, creative and less stressed.

When we take time just to breathe, it sends signals to our brain that everything is ok.

If you are not quite sure what stretches you could do, I’ve got a library of 100 videos with breathing, stretching and coaching tips to help on my free YouTube Channel – Daily Reset Break.   You can click on the Daily Reset Break logo above to find the YouTube link for the videos.

Another suggestion I always like to make is to do yoga. You can expect to release a lot of that pent up stress that you’ve been holding onto by being able to stretch out the places that store your stress the most.  I know some intimidation can come up for some around doing yoga, but I always encourage my students not to worry about what anyone else is doing, but to just be grateful to have the opportunity to be able to give your mind and body such a great gift!

Just in case you are not familiar with the benefits of yoga, here are some of them:

  • Increases clarity, focus, concentration, productivity and energy
  • Relieves fatigue, stress, insomnia, depression, irritability and anxiety
  • Reduces office drama
  • Fosters creativity
  • Leads to happier employees
  • Promotes a healthier environment
  • Increased energy, strength, flexibility and balance (men, that goes for you too and it could even help your golf or tennis game or any other activities you might do!)
  • Heightened sense of lightness, joy and freedom
  • Aides in the focus on breathing that can also benefit you in everyday life – relieve stress and lower blood pressure
  • Fosters detoxification, pain relief, injury prevention, improved circulation, increased muscle tone and weight loss

And, if you are worried that you are not flexible enough or can’t touch your toes, IT DOESN’T MATTER! The whole point is to do yoga to become more flexible so we can age more gracefully and be more mobile as time goes on so our bodies don’t have to decline over time. And please DON’T say “I can’t do yoga” because I will always disagree with you. I teach my 87-year-old neighbor yoga once a week, so I’m pretty sure you can do it too 🙂

If yoga is not your thing, here are a couple of good breathing exercises to help you get started on a short break during your workday (in addition to the stretches and breathing you can find on the Daily Reset Break channel). If your boss busts you and gets upset, just explain that by taking a short break that in the end they will be the ones to benefit because you can stay focused and be more productive. Otherwise, remember, we might be looking at 23 minutes of distracted time when you get off task. And that could happen multiple times a day!

(These exercises are to be done breathing in and out through your nose.)

RELAXING BREATH: Inhale 4, hold 1, exhale 8, hold 4

ENERGIZING BREATH: Inhale 6, hold 4, exhale 6, hold 1

Happy happy New Year and I hope you find ways to commit to doing more things that relieve stress for yourself so you can be the best version of you!

What Would You Like To Leave Behind In 2015?

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Recently I learned that I need to work on my patience. It’s plain as day to me now, but funny that so many of my yoga students or coaching clients have seen me as one to have a lot of patience. Luckily, in those settings I do, but in everyday life situations, turns out it’s where I need the most work.

I read the book, “They Healing Code” by Alexander Loyd a couple of weeks ago and not only has it been blowing my mind, but I loved the quiz that is included on their website where you can find out the areas where you need to improve in your life to bring yourself anything from better health, to success & relationships.

Patience was my number one thing that I need to work on and I feel like it’s such a blessing to know because I know that the more I work on it to get better at having more patience in every day situations, I will be able to find even that much more joy in my life.

I always find it funny how when you start to work on something, that pretty much immediately it becomes the thing that shows up in your life the most. So, it’s no surprise to me that I had more technology issues the past few weeks than I can ever remember having in my lifetime. I had multiple opportunities to practice patience when my email accounts stopped working, my phone email got messed up, my stereo system for my yoga classes wouldn’t work (all three completely unrelated or connected) and I had to spend 4 hours on the phone with Apple to only find out that we need to swipe my computer and start all over.

This wasn’t one of those 4 hours calls where you could put the phone down and check in to see what progress has been made or multi-task, but one where they took over my screen and had a red arrow pointing to each thing I had to click, so I was doing something with them the entire 4 hours. I will get another chance to be patient when I get back on the line with them to back up my computer tonight and again when I leave my computer tomorrow in their hands for a week to fix these issues.

Christmas time and shopping of course gives plenty of opportunities for patience as well and helping my sweet grandmother yesterday from the nursing home into the car to take her to see my family when she can hardly get around on her own and at a very slow pace was another bonus opportunity.

So, the question is…do you know what you need to let go of this year and leave behind or commit to improve on in 2016?

I have no problem doing the work I need to around patience, as I know that it will bring me even more joy and peace in my life.

The interesting thing that “The Healing Code” provides is a way to work through to have more patience or whatever you are needing. What I was reminded of on my own though is that underneath impatience or whatever negative thing that keeps you from love, patience, kindness, etc. can be something like sadness or anger.

This week I found myself being very impatience with a friend and after digging deeper I realized that it was because I actually felt taken advantage of in that particular situation. Then, I dug deeper to find what other situations I have felt taken advantage of before and was actually able to get to a little bit of anger underneath it all.

A wise woman and mentor of mine happened to catch me at that time and we both decided I needed to get some of that anger out that I usually hold in and have typically been afraid to let out. I mean, who wants to be that “angry” person, right?  I typically find a way to get back in a better mood or just let it continue as being annoyed or irritated vs. letting any of it out and then just go back to being happy while continuing to stuff the anger.

So, we decided I could choose to put on some boxing gloves and get some of that anger out and I ended up going to town on my guest bedroom bed. I actually had a blast recalling up times I felt taken advantage of and got out some anger, but then it wasn’t surprising to me that underneath all of that was sadness. I then found myself crying at the same time I was getting my frustration out and after about 20 minutes or so of this whole experience, I felt drained and exhausted, but it also felt really amazing.

I then did a “Healing Code” from the book and felt such a release and very calm & peaceful.

While I am not condoning anger, there was definitely something very healing about being able to get angry in a safe environment where I wasn’t taking it out on anyone else, but got to release some of the anger that had been built up inside me for so many years.

Sometimes we need to do some deeper diving into an emotion or feeling we are having like frustration, irritability, or even anger to see what is buried underneath in order to let it go so that we can be less of those things moving foreword and be at our best for ourselves and those around us that we care about the most.

Maybe you know what you’d like more of in your life (Me = Patience) or maybe a quiz like the one that comes with “The Healing Code” book could be helpful, but either way, once you figure it out, I encourage you to pay attention to yourself in those situations that come up where you see you are struggling with that thing and dive a bit deeper to see what you have buried and see if you can find a way to release it.

My challenge to you this holiday season is to see what it is you’d like to leave behind in 2015 (Me = Impatience) and what you would like to move forward in 2016 with more of (Me = Patience) and do whatever it takes to challenge yourself to be more of that and then once it has been achieved you can move on to the next thing you’d like more of…before you know it, you’ll be living a life of pure BLISS.

Cheers to an amazing 2016!

So much love to you and yours!

Top 5 Things To Get You Through Thanksgiving Without Feeling Stuffed And Miserable

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Thanksgiving is creeping up upon us and we all know what that means.  It’s a time to stuff ourselves until we are absolutely miserable to where all we can do is barely make it to the couch to nap or go into a food coma and be anything but present or fun to those around us.

Here are my top 5 tips to help you get through Thanksgiving without feeling stuffed and miserable.  And for some, let me just add in that being with family, sadly, can be miserable and it can be an opportunity for us to get triggered or upset with or without any good reason.  So, with that in mind…

1)  GRATITUDE, GRATITUDE and more GRATITUDE.  Did you know that your brain cannot process fear and gratitude at the same time?  Which means, when we are triggered – in other words –  upset, annoyed, irritated or angry (possibly with family members), the best thing for us to do is to go to a place of gratitude.  Even though we don’t necessarily feel fear in all of those circumstances, it is hidden somewhere underneath, so practicing gratitude as much as possible during Thanksgiving is not only great for keeping your cool, but also certainly fits right in with the theme of the holiday 😉

2)  More protein & veggies and less carbs – Do you ever stop and look at how much protein you are really taking in each day?  It would be great if you were getting 60-80 grams a day.  I’ve heard in Asian cultures, they get closer to 100 grams a day and don’t even have a word for hot flashes!  Two eggs in the morning is only 12 grams if that tells you anything, so try to look for other great sources to bring in more protein throughout your day, especially in the morning.  This will help stabilize your blood sugar for the day so you get less crashes.  There are some great non-meat sources of protein as well if you are vegetarian or would like to bring in more protein, along with your meat.  Orzo and quinoa are some great sources of protein that I’ve been loving lately.  Both are great as sides or in a salad.

3)  Know when enough is enough when it comes to eating.  A great way of doing this is to slow things down.  When we are shoving things into our mouth so quickly, a lot of times we can keep going longer than if we take it slow and enjoy what we are eating.  It’s another great opportunity to go back to #1 and appreciate and have gratitude for the wonderful food you are eating, that you have food on the table and possibly friends or family to eat it with and company to enjoy.

4)  Go on a walk right after you eat your biggest meal.  It’s the last thing you will want to do, trust me.  But, it’s also the best think you could do for yourself.  If you could make it a goal to walk after EVERY meal, even better!  This is actually the best thing diabetics could do as well because it helps stabilize your blood sugar so you don’t get the crashes and ups and downs from your food turning into sugar.  Give yourself this gift after that big meal that may be in your future this week!

5)  Practice turning your focus to others and try to have fun, even if it’s hard in some cases.  If things with the family get tense, try to lighten the mood a little.  If anything, even if you are the only one, try to bring some fun to the conversation or something as simple as smiling and telling those around you that you love them or simply showing them my listening to their stories or hugging them and just spending time with them.  When we take our attention off ourself for a while, it’s amazing how people can see how present you are being with them and that alone can usually lighten the mood quiet a bit.

I wish you all a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!!!

May you remember all that you have to be grateful for in your life…

How Much Do You Believe In Yourself?

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“Your chances of success in any undertaking can always be measured by your belief in yourself.” – Robert Collier

I love this quote and it makes me wonder why some of us believe in ourselves and some of us don’t.

At what point do we lose our confidence and think we aren’t capable of certain things?

Is it when we hear growing up that we are not good at x but good at something else?

Is it when we get our heart broken for the first time that we lose confidence in ourselves?

Is it when we try something and fail, even on the first go round?

At what point do we begin to stop loving ourselves enough to believe in ourselves?

I have done many things throughout the course of my life that I wasn’t very proud of and punished myself for them over many years.  I also had some self hatred for myself and self sabotage going on until I had enough and decided to get some help and let coaches show me how much I had stopped loving myself.

Would you be willing to ask yourself these questions?

Where do you judge yourself?

Are your thoughts to yourself loving or critical?

When I am working with my life coaching clients, I’m amazed at how much we judge ourselves and the amount of self doubt we can have.

Do you believe you are capable of doing anything you want to do?  If not, why not?  And I don’t necessarily mean something like going to the Olympics if you haven’t been training to be an athlete for years, but even some of the simple things you’d like to do, but don’t believe that you can.  Things like starting a new career or your own business, finishing school, writing a book, having a healthy relationship, having a child, etc.

Would you be willing to start being a little more kinder to yourself?  You know, we are what we think we are and we attract what we are thinking about, so the more we think negatively about ourselves, the more we will continue to feel that way and keep acting as we tell ourselves we are.

What if you took the next week and only thought positive things about yourself?  You could make a list of positive characteristics that you have and read them to yourself a couple of times a day and be grateful that you are those wonderful things.

Then, when you feel the negative self talk creeping up, go back to the list.  If you practice looking at them enough, you will remember some of them when you begin to get caught up in those moments and begin to say them to yourself until it becomes natural to feel that way about yourself and regain your confidence in who you are.  We all have unique gifts, talents and characteristics that we can appreciate.  And you’d be amazed at how much others will begin to see them too (if they are not already) when we start to appreciate them and are living them ourselves.

The best thing you can do in those moments of self doubt and negative talk is to switch to focusing on the positive and be grateful that you have those beautiful characteristics.  You might be surprised at how far being grateful for what you do have can get you and you might even start to find yourself making goals and steps towards some of the things you’d like to accomplish.

I challenge you to start listening to what you tell yourself and ask yourself if that is really true and perhaps start working towards proving yourself wrong.  And if you really want to get crazy, add in some words that you know you have faith you can be and want to be like, “I am confident” or “I am successful” and sit back and watch what happens 😉

Thank You, Thumbtack!

Bestof2015ImageThank you, Thumbtack for the #1 Marriage Counselor in Dallas award on your “Best of 2015 – Marriage Counselors in Dallas” list!

If you have never heard of Thumbtack, I highly encourage you to check it out.  You can search for any services in your city and find the perfect match for you by learning more information about the person or company and being able to read reviews.

It is no cost to the person seeking the service since the professional pays to use the service.  You can find anything from a pet sitter to a life coach to a painter.  All you have to do is submit your request for what you are looking for and you will receive 5 quotes from professionals in your area.

I have been working with some wonderful clients as a result of Thumbtack and I highly recommend it!

Thank you, Thumbtack, I am a big fan!

Meditation Is The #1 Thing To Reduce Anxiety: A Simple 2 Week Challenge

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Meditation is the #1 thing to reduce anxiety.  So, do you ever take time to meditate and spend some time in silence?  It’s OK if you don’t, but perhaps you’d consider doing this simple 2 week meditation challenge?

When I’m working with my coaching clients and if we get to the point where we discuss meditation being a good thing for them to add into their life (this is usually with every client!), I notice a common theme.  I find that even when I walk through and send instructions over on how to do the meditation, people have anxiety come up around sitting alone with their thoughts and just breathing or think they won’t be able to sit still long enough.

I’ve had people come back and say they did audio meditations instead and other techniques and then I end up having the conversation of how important it is just to try and do a basic meditation.  I’m not knocking audios as I do them too sometimes, but the point is to also get used to being alone in silence and try meditating that way as well.

First off, if you have fear or concerns around anything around meditation and religion, I just want to clarify that you are not worshipping Buddha or anything just by meditating and paying attention to your breath.  You are just taking time to focus on your breath so that over time you can have more moments of silence to slow down all of the chatter in our minds.

While the end goal could be to have complete & total silence and nothingness, it’s an honor when we have that happen for a moment in meditation.  For the most part, we just have small spurts of time with no thought and we have to remind ourselves to go back to our breath and it starts to retrain us when we are in the real world to have less of the constant stress and chatter in our minds.

Meditation also helps lower blood pressure, relieves depression & fear, improves your mood and emotional intelligence, increases mental focus, improves energy, helps lessen and prevent asthma, fibromyalgia, arthritis and so many other benefits too long to list, but you get the idea.

If you’d like to give it a try, here’s my suggestion for a two week challenge for yourself.

For meditation: Find a comfortable seated position trying to sit with your knees below your hips possibly using a pillow or blanket underneath your seat.  Sit up nice and tall and palms facing up can be for receiving, palms down for grounding or do whatever is comfortable for you if neither of those call to you.  Close your eyes and just focus on your breath.  Your only job is to breathe deep breaths in through your nose and out through your nose.  Try to extend the inhales and exhales as time goes on.  As thoughts come in just let them pass through without judging them and go back to your breath.  That’s all you have to do.  I typically set an alarm on my phone and mine still works even with my phone on silent, but the volume up.  I use the “harp” on my iPhone as the noise to make when it ends to come out of it a little more peacefully.  Play around with doing it in the morning and then some in the evening and see what you like better.  There are a few 2ce a day goals below where you can do it both times and see if you notice a difference doing it twice that day also.  Even if you have to go back and “start over” by going back to your breath 100 times in a minute because you catch your brain going, that’s ok, just start over as many times as it takes & go back to your breath.

Week 1 –

Day 1: 1 min 2ce this day
Day 2: 2 min
Day 3: 3 mins 2ce this day
Day 4: 4 mins
Day 5: 5 mins
Day 6: 5 mins
Day 7: off

Week 2 –

Day 1:  6 mins
Day 2: 7 mins
Day 3:  8 mins twice this day
Day 4: 9 min
Day 5: 10 min
Day 6: 10 min
Day 7: off

Then, after those few weeks, I would decide on a time frame that you like best and stick with that for at least 3 more weeks until it can become a habit.  This is one of the best things we could all do for ourselves and our well being.  You may be surprised that it could turn out to where you start to look forward to that time of your day, kind of like taking a mini vacation!

Speaking of vacation, I’m headed out for one next week, so this will be my last blog until August 14th.  Going to celebrate my belated honeymoon and big 40th bday at the beach getting my surf on.

In the meantime, I hope you consider taking the two week meditation challenge!

Take good care of you.

Are You Going To Take Time For You This Weekend?

IMG_1310Are you going to take time for you this weekend?

What do you love to do and can you make sure you take a little bit of time to do one of the things you love this weekend?

Maybe it’s reading a book, going to the lake or looking at a body of water, having brunch with a friend, taking a nice long bubble bath, whatever the case may be, can you make a commitment to give yourself some you time this weekend?

I am going to go to a rodeo with my family because it’s a family tradition that my dad and I have been doing for about 15 years now.  My mom has been to most of them with us and my husband joined us last year and he will be coming with us again this year.  The fun thing is that my grandmother is going with us also.  She’s never been with us, so I’m really looking forward to it!

It is such a special time of year for me when I get to do this with my family, so that is my treat to myself this weekend.

Are you willing to pick something right now that you love to do and make a promise to yourself that you will do it this weekend?  When we do things we love, it can re-energize and re-juvenate us like nothing else.

Wishing you a great one and hope you have a chance to love on your family or someone special also this weekend.

What Does Equanimity Mean To You?

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This week, I’ve been looking at what equanimity means to me and this has been the theme of the yoga classes I’ve been teaching.

I’ve been working through Baron Baptiste’s book for the 2nd time – 40 Days to Personal Revolution and this also happens to be the focus for the week.

I love how he says in the book “Equanimity is the art of meeting life as it meets you – calmly, without drama or fuss.”  And he also says that “we change by finding equanimity learning to relax right in the middle of conflict-filled moments.”

Even yoga can seem like conflict sometimes and that’s what I’ve had my students take a look at this week.  We can be in situations and start to panic because we think it hurts or we can’t stay any longer because we are too tired or get too shaky to continue.

So, whether we decide to stay in a pose, get out, we are shaky or lose our balance, can we still stay calm in these times?

Can you still stay calm when things aren’t going your way?  Can you stay calm when life hands you things that you weren’t expecting that take away from the things you wanted to be spending your time on?

I’ve noticed that meditation helps me a lot with staying calm in these moments.  The more that I can relax and stay calm during meditation, the more it carries out through the rest of my life.

If you do not have a regular meditation practice, would you be willing to try and just meditate for 5 minutes a day the next week?  The 40 days book I mentioned above suggests working up to 30 minutes 2ce a day.  So, could you just commit to 5 minutes a day to start?  It just might be the best 5 minutes of your day and you could begin to see you enjoy it so much you may end up wanting more.

You can sit in a comfortable seated position (best if knees are below your hips, so sitting on a pillow or blanket can help) and just take big deep breaths in and out through your nose.  As you recognize thoughts and sounds, try and let them pass through without judging them.  Just go right back to your breathing and pay attention to your next breath.  When it happens again, repeat and go back to your breath.  Set a timer for how long you want to meditate and when the timer goes off you can go about the rest of your day hopefully a little more calm and peaceful and you will have certainly given your mind & body a huge gift!

 

What I Learned From A Very Humbling Experience…

IASBI learned a lot this past weekend from a very humbling experience.

I had the honor of doing a few Reset Breaks at the IASB Convention in New Orleans.  This is some of the top speakers bureau agents, owners and employees in the world.  Therefore, it can be a really intimidating audience to say the least.  They’ve seen and heard it all.  From celebrities to CEO’s to authors, they have new information coming at them daily and get to hear all the top speakers in the world.

Somehow I got lost and forgot what I was doing this for in the first place.  I made it all about me. I was concerned if they would like it or not.  Had they heard of anything like this before or would what I would be doing be new and fresh for them?  I’ve got to make it fun, funny, serious, important and have them feel refreshed and re-energized at the same time.  Is it dumb that I’m opening the conference wearing a dress and heels even though we are doing some stretching exercises?  And the thoughts go on and on…

It’s no surprise to me that with all of these thoughts running through my mind that the first break I did out of three I had a moment where I froze up a bit.  I forgot all of the wonderful statistics I wanted to share and was wishing that I had slides like I normally do.  I’ve been in this industry since 2003, so I know many of the audience members.  I also know now that you can’t possibly prepare yourself enough for this audience.  No visualization or preparation cut it for me because I was ready.  But, the minute I saw certain people and owners of these top bureaus in the audience the more I froze up and forgot all the things I wanted to say.

It was truly one of the scariest moments of my life that seemed like it lasted an absolute eternity.

I ended up nervously pulling it together somehow and kept going, but it wasn’t easy.  And luckily, before my 3rd break, I had an incredible conversation with one of the other speakers.  I was reminded of why I was there in the first place and that somehow along the way I had lost the whole reason of why I’m so passionate about this work in the first place.

I had made it all about me vs. all about them and what they could take from it.  It’s why I’m in the business is to help people live their lives to their fullest potential and taking care of ourselves is in line with one of the big things I like to be teaching.  Here I was having that opportunity to some of the most influential people out there and I lost track of why I was there because I let my nerves get the best of me.

The good news is I was able to switch to that mentality before my last break and even better news is now I’m pretty sure I could speak in front of the President of the United States and all of the top level CEO’s in the world and it would seem like a piece of cake.  At least I’m well prepared for anything that comes along in the future 😉

Have you been humbled lately and if so, what did you learn from it?  Or do you maybe need to be a bit more humble around a certain area and perhaps even ask someone for help?

Feels So Good…

Feels so good

 

Feels so good…

At least that’s what Peter Gorman states in his recent article for Meeting Professionals International regarding the meeting industry incorporating wellness elements into their event schedules.

I was thrilled when a friend sent me this article as I recently had the privilege of teaching yoga for three days for an event with Concentra and the attendees were telling me how much they enjoyed getting to take the break and do yoga and how much their bodies appreciated it.

I also selfishly was excited to see this as I’m offering Reset Breaks at corporate meetings and events and love seeing that this is becoming a popular trend in the industry.

I got word that I’m going to be doing a big industry event in a few weeks in New Orleans and really looking forward to seeing how we can continue to grow this trend.

Read full article here

On another exciting note, I’m going to be launching Daily Reset Break on YouTube in the next few days and looking forward to offering free videos online for all to view to get RESET, RE-ENERGIZED and RE-ENGAGED and be less stressed and more productive.

More to come…