Bookmark and Share

Monday, November 30, 2009

Reduce Stress and Improve Your Life with Positive Self Talk

Patterns of negative or positive self-talk often start in childhood. Usually, the self-talk habit is one that’s colored our thinking for years, and can affect us in many ways, influencing the experience of stress to our lives. However, any time can be a good time to change it! Here are some ways you can stop yourself from using negative self-talk and use your mind to boost your productivity and self-esteem, and relieve stress.

Notice Your Patterns:
The first step toward change is to become more aware of the problem. You probably don’t realize how often you say negative things in your head, or how much it affects your experience. The following strategies can help you become more conscious of your internal dialogue and its content.

  • Journal Writing: Whether you carry a journal around with you and jot down negative comments when you think them, write a general summary of your thoughts at the end of the day, or just start writing about your feelings on a certain topic and later go back to analyze it for content, journaling can be an effective tool for examining your inner process.
  • Thought-Stopping: As you notice yourself saying something negative in your mind, you can stop your thought mid-stream my saying to yourself “Stop”. Saying this aloud will be more powerful, and having to say it aloud will make you more aware of how many times you are stopping negative thoughts, and where.
  • Rubber-Band Snap: Another therapeutic trick is to walk around with a rubber band around your wrist; as you notice negative self-talk, pull the band away from your skin and let it snap back. It’ll hurt a little, and serve as a slightly negative consequence that will both make you more aware of your thoughts, and help to stop them! (Or, if you don’t want to subject yourself to walking around with a rubber band on your wrist, you’ll be even more careful to limit the negative thoughts!)

Replace Negative Statements:
A good way to stop a bad habit is to replace it with something better. Once you’re aware of your internal dialogue, here are some ways to change it:

  • Milder Wording: Have you ever been to a hospital and noticed how the nurses talk about ‘discomfort’ instead of ‘pain’? This is generally done because ‘pain’ is a much more powerful word, and discussing your ‘pain’ level can actually make your experience of it more intense than if you’re discussing your ‘discomfort’ level. You can try this strategy in your daily life. In your self-talk, turning more powerful negative words to more neutral ones can actually help neutralize your experience. Instead of using words like ‘hate’ and ‘angry’ (as in, “I hate traffic! It makes me so angry!”), you can use words like ‘don’t like’ and ‘annoyed’ (“I don’t like traffic; it makes me annoyed,” sounds much milder, doesn’t it?)
  • Change Negative to Neutral or Positive: As you find yourself mentally complaining about something, rethink your assumptions. Are you assuming something is a negative event when it isn’t, necessarily? (For example, having your plans cancelled at the last minute can be seen as a negative, but what you do with your newly-freed schedule can be what you make of it.) The next time you find yourself stressing about something or deciding you’re not up to a challenge, stop and rethink, and see if you can come up with a neutral or positive replacement.
  • Change Self-Limiting Statements to Questions: Self-limiting statements like “I can’t handle this!” or “This is impossible!” are particularly damaging because they increase your stress in a given situation and they stop you from searching for solutions. The next time you find yourself thinking something that limits the possibilities of a given situation, turn it into a question. Doesn’t “How can I handle this?” or “How is this possible?” sound more hopeful and open up your imagination to new possibilities?
You can also help yourself develop more positive self talk by bringing more positive energy into your life. Here are some resources for surrounding yourself with positivity so your mind remains more optimistic and positive.

How To Maintain A Sense of Humor

Developing a sense of humor about life’s challenges is an effective coping technique that can actually lead to better overall health as well as simple stress management. That’s because, aside from the health benefits of laughter (which are numerous and significant), having a sense of humor about life’s difficulties can provide a way to bond with others, look at things in a different way, normalize your experience, and keep things from appearing too overwhelming or scary. Properly developed, a good sense of humor can keep people and relationships strong. Here’s how to develop yours:
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: Ongoing
Here's How:
  1. Start With a Smile.
    Studies show that having a smile on your face can release endorphins, which make you feel better, and can lead you to actually feeling more happy (rather than just looking more happy). If you are able to put a smile on your face, the laughter will come more easily, and the stress will melt more readily.
  2. Take A Step Back.
    When you’re in the middle of a difficult situation, it can seem overwhelming. If you try to see your situation as an observer would, it’s often easier to recognize what’s funny. For example, Lucy Ricardo (of the television classic, I Love Lucy) may have found nothing funny in getting locked in a freezer, having a fight with a fellow grape-squasher in a vineyard, or getting drunk while filming a television commercial for Vitamedaveggemin, but watching these scenarios can be hilarious. Sometimes imagining how you would look in a sitcom can be the secret key to finding the humor in a situation.
  3. Value The Extremes.
    If your situation seems ridiculously frustrating, recognize the potential humor in just how ridiculously frustrating and annoying it is. In your imagination, take the situation to an extreme that becomes even more ridiculous until you find yourself amused. For example, when you’re waiting in a long line at the store, you can imagine that hours pass, then days, visualizing yourself accepting visits from loved ones from your new home in this ultra-long line, holding your children’s birthday parties in aisle seven so you can be there to enjoy them…you get the picture.
  4. Have A Funny Buddy.
    Find a friend with whom you can laugh, and let the relationship work for you! You can each share your frustrations, and laugh about them in the process. Even when your friend isn’t there, you can lighten your mood in a dark situation by thinking about the retelling that will come later.
  5. Make It A Game.
    You can have a ‘most annoying boss’ contest with your friends, or try to count how many times the same potentially frustrating event happens in a day. (I was cut off in traffic 7 times today—I’m almost up to 10!) This works well for predictably or repetitive annoying situations that you can’t control; you can begin to value them in their own special way instead of letting them upset you.
  6. Watch Funny Shows and Movies.
    One of the factors that drive the popularity of shows like The Office or Everybody Loves Raymond, or movies like the classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, is that they take somewhat universal situations that many people find frustrating and push them a little further, pointing out the silliness of it all. Realizing that some universally annoying situations are actually funny, can help you endure them with a smile—even if it’s a wry or ironic smile.
  7. Read Funny Books.
    Read humorous essays like those of Dave Barry or David Sedaris, both of whom are able to take events, ranging from annoying to upsetting to even tragic, and find the humor—each in his own unique way. Also recommended are the humorous tidbits in Reader’s Digest, as well as classic humor books like Jerry Seinfeld’s SeinLanguage. Reading others’ humorous interpretations of life can help you find your own style of seeing the world in a different light.
  8. Visit Funny Websites.
    I love About.com’s Political Humor site, as it very effectively takes the normally frustrating and annoying (for me) world of politics and brings it to a very funny place. (The site can also serve as a reminder of how to see the humor in other situations in life.) I also recommend About.com’s general site, and David Letterman’s archives of Top 10 Lists for a good laugh.
  9. Join Funny Clubs.
    Oprah did a segment on Laughter Yoga that intrigued me, and I researched a club on my own, finding it to be a terrific place to enjoy a good laugh. Whether you’re taking the laughing seriously or laughing at the silliness of it all, taking part in the exercises of laughter yoga with other humor-participants can be a very effective way to get back in the practice of getting some more giggles into your day.
  10. Email This Page To A Frie

Stress and Burnout: Burnout Symptoms and Causes

Those who are experiencing high amounts of stress in their lifestyle need to always be aware of the idea of burnout potentially looming in the future. While the term ‘burnout’ is often thrown around in discussions of stress, do you really know what it means, and how it’s caused?

The term “burnout” is a relatively new term, first coined in 1974 by Herbert Freudenberger, in his book, “Burnout: The High Cost of High Achievement”. He originally defined ‘burnout’ as, “the extinction of motivation or incentive, especially where one's devotion to a cause or relationship fails to produce the desired results.”

While burnout isn’t a recognized clinical psychiatric or psychological disorder, there are some similar features between burnout and diagnosable conditions such as depression, anxiety disorders or mood disorders. However, burnout is much more common; for example, it’s estimated that 25%-60% of practicing physicians experience burnout! It’s also less severe, more temporary in duration, and clearly caused by situational stressors rather than a biologically mandated chemical imbalance. (It’s kind of like depression’s non-clinical, less intense cousin that just comes for a visit and leaves when you reduce the stress in your life.) Classic symptoms include the following:

  • Depleted Physical Energy: Prolonged stress can be physically draining, causing you to feel tired much of the time, or no longer have the energy you once did. Getting out of bed to face another day of the same gets more difficult.
  • Emotional Exhaustion: You feel impatient, moody, inexplicably sad, or just get frustrated more easily than you normally would. You feel like you can’t deal with life as easily than you once could.
  • Lowered Immunity to Illness: When stress levels are high for a prolonged amount of time, your immune system does suffer. People who are suffering from burnout usually get the message from their body that something needs to change, and that message comes in the form of increases susceptibility to colds, the flu, and other minor illnesses (and sometimes some not-so-minor ones).
  • Less Investment in Interpersonal Relationships: Withdrawing somewhat from interpersonal relationships is another possible sign of burnout. You may feel like you have less to give, or less interest in having fun, or just less patience with people. But for whatever reason, people experiencing burnout can usually see the effects in their relationships.
  • Increasingly Pessimistic Outlook: When experiencing burnout, it’s harder to get excited about life, harder to expect the best, harder to let things roll off your back, and harder to ‘look on the bright side’ in general. Because optimism is a great buffer for stress, those suffering from burnout find it harder to pull out of their rut than they normally would.
  • Increased Absenteeism and Inefficiency at Work: When experiencing job burnout, it gets more difficult just to get out of bed and face more of what’s been overwhelming you in the first place. This may be an unconscious defense against burnout, but those experiencing it tend to be less effective overall and stay home from work more often. (This could also be due to increased illness resulting from lowered immunity, as discussed above.) This is part of why it makes sense for workers to take some time off before they’re feeling burned-out, and why it makes sense for employers to refrain from running their workers into the ground; they might not get back up so quickly!

How To Cope With a Natural Disaster or Crisis

Natural disasters have a broad effect on people’s lives, not only affecting those directly involved, but concerning friends and loved ones around the country. Usually, the impact lasts months or years as a community works to rebuild what was lost in the fire, earthquake or other disaster. If your life is touched by a natural disaster or crisis, here are some important ways to cope:

Calm Your Body: When you feel stress, your body prepares to fight or run, and gets into crisis mode. However, this can be damaging to your health long-term, so muting your body’s stress response is important for you physically as well as emotionally. Now is the time to put some stress management techniques in practice. As you read this, you may want to take a deep, cleansing breath or two. This can release tension in your body right away. You may also want to try meditation, yoga or a tension-releasing activity that you enjoy. Don’t forget to get as much quality sleep as you can, and eat well. Taking care of your body can lessen the impact of stress.

Process Your Feelings: If you find that your mind is racing or you feel emotionally stressed, you may need to make an concerted effort to process your feelings. Many people find it easiest to do this through journaling. Writing in a journal about your thoughts and feelings has been found to be very effective with stress relief and is also associated with better health.Another very effective way to process your feelings is to talk to someone about them. Studies show that those with greater social support tend to be more emotionally resilient in the face of disaster. Try to find a supportive friend to talk to, and rather than just talking about what’s happening, also discuss how you feel about what’s happening. Simply vocalizing what’s going on with you emotionally can help you to integrate your feelings, and can blunt the impact of more distressing emotions. If you don’t have a supportive friend to talk to, or if you’re plagued by distressing emotions that you can’t seem to shake, you may want to speak to a professional.

Do What You Can: You may find that action is a great outlet for your anxiety. Whether your action takes the form of donating extra resources to disaster victims across the country (if you’re not directly involved), or lending support to fellow evacuees (if you are directly involved), doing something positive to help others can help provide you with a sense of control over your circumstances and a release for your anxiety.Another important direction for your energy is preparedness. If you don’t already have a plan for future disasters, it’s a good idea to come up with one as soon as you’re able. Preparing as much as possible can provide you with a sense of stability and can lessen the impact of any future crises.

Try To Look For The Positives: If you’re directly affected by a crisis or disaster, you may be facing many major changes in your life. Even if you’re only indirectly affected, your sense of safety may be shaken. Either way, you may need to adjust your way of thinking about yourself, your community, and your life.While such changes can be a source of stress, you may also find them to be an opportunity in your life. You may discover strength you didn’t realize you had, or find that you have a new appreciation for what’s precious in your life. Your relationships may be strengthened as you reach out to give or receive support. You may find a renewed or strengthened sense of spirituality. These things can all be good for coping and resilience.

RSS Feeds

Question: RSS Feeds

What are RSS feeds? Perhaps you've seen text or image buttons on various websites inviting you to "subscribe via RSS." Well, what does that mean exactly? What is RSS, what are RSS feeds, and how do you get them to work for you?

Answer:

What is RSS?

Short for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary, this handy service is revolutionizing the way we search for content.

In addition, us web searchers don't necessarily have to keep checking back to any particular site to see if it's been updated - all we need to do is subscribe to the RSS feed, much like you would subscribe to a newspaper, and then read the updates from the site, delivered via RSS feeds, in what's called a "feed reader." (We'll get to feed readers in just a minute!)

RSS feeds benefit those who actually own or publish a website as well, since site owners can get their updated content to subscribers fast by submitting feeds to various XML and RSS directories.

How do RSS feeds work?

RSS feeds really couldn't be simpler. They're basically simple text files that, once submitted to feed directories, will allow subscribers to see content within a very short time after it's updated (sometimes as short as 30 minutes or less; it's getting faster all the time).

This content can be aggregated to be viewed even more easily by using a feed reader. I've written up an article on the best feed readers out there. A feed reader, or feed aggregator, is just a really simple way to view all your feeds at one time via one interface.

For instance, I have a Bloglines feed. I have all sorts of good stuff in there. Can you imagine how much time it saves me to have all these topics sent to me in one place rather than me searching it out?

In addition, all these people who have their sites syndicated on my Bloglines roll are enabling their content to be seen by me and other people who wouldn't necessarily find them in the search engines or directories. RSS feeds are a wonderful resource, and the uses for RSS are only just beginning to be realized; not only for search engines and searching, but in how we optimize our sites.

Anyone who wants to get their site noticed, get some Web buzz a-buzzin', needs an RSS feed on their site. Here are some more resources that will help you figure this all out:

  • Synic8.com.Seriously any and all information you ever needed to know about RSS feeds. If you can't find it here, it's not out yet.
  • Stephan Spencer has written a fantastic (and it's in Power Point, even!) presentation on how RSS and search engine optimization can and should work together.
  • Wikipedia, itself a great experiment in social bookmarking, has a good informational article on RSS.
  • Jennifer Kyrnin's RSS article is a solid resource that takes you through the actual design process, as well as things to look out for when creating the XML file.
More Web Search Q&A
More about RSS feeds

The Best RSS Readers on the WebWhat is RSS?Feed43 - Create a RSS Feed

Learn more about RSS feeds

Microsoft Longhorn and RSSSearch Engines and RSS - Can They Compete?RSS Hacks

RSS Feeds

Google News and RSSTurn Any RSS Feed Into A Podcast With AudioliciousNewzfire.com-Search News Fast From RSS Feeds

Anger Problems - Effects of Poorly Managed Anger

Like poorly managed stress, anger that isn’t handled in a healthy way can be not only uncomfortable, but even damaging to one’s health and personal life. Consider the following research on anger:

One study from the University of Washington School of Nursing studied anger problems in husbands and wives. Researchers cited previous evidence that anger problems and depressive symptoms have been linked to all major causes of death, but found that wives specifically found a greater association between anger and symptoms of depression, while men tended to instead experience an association between anger and health problems.

According to a study from Ohio State University, those who had less control over their anger tended to heal more slowly from wounds. Researchers gave blisters to 98 participants and found that, after 8 days, those who had less control over their anger also tended to be slower healers. In addition, those participants also tended to have more cortisol (a stress hormone) in their system during the blistering procedure, suggesting that they may be more stressed by difficult situations as well.

Another study from Harvard School of Public Health studied hostility in men and found that those with higher rates of hostility not only had poorer pulmonary functioning (breathing problems), but experienced higher rates of decline as they aged.

Research with children and adolescents shows that anger management is important for the younger set as well. Findings showed that youth who cope inappropriately with their anger are at greater risk for problem-ridden interpersonal relationships. Their health is also at risk; those who cope poorly with anger tend to have more negative outcomes when it comes to both mental and general health. This highlights the fact that anger management is an important skill to learn early.

These are just a few of the many studies linking anger to physical and emotional health problems, from the obvious to the unexpected. Because poorly managed anger presents such a significant problem in so many areas of life, it’s important to take steps toward learning and using healthy anger management techniques in daily life, along with stress management techniques. The following articles can help with both.

Stress and Health:-(CONTINUED>>>)

Yoga can be helpful in managing stress. (Continued from Page 1)

What You Can Do

To keep stress, especially chronic stress, from damaging your health, it’s important to be sure that your body does not experience excessive states of this physiological arousal. There are two important ways to do this:

  • Learn Tension-Taming Techniques: Certain techniques can activate your body’s relaxation response, putting your body in a calm state. These techniques, including meditation, yoga, deep breathing exercises, journaling and positive imagery, can be learned easily and practiced when you’re under stress, helping you feel better relatively quickly.
  • Prevent Excess Stress: Some acute stress is unavoidable, but much of the episodic acute stress and chronic stress--the stress that damages our health--that we experience can be avoided or minimized with the use of organization techniques, time management, relationship skills and other healthy lifestyle choices.

Seeking Professional Help

Sometimes stress becomes so great that people develop stress-related disorders or need the help of medications, herbal treatments or the aid of a professional. If you experience excessive anxiety or symptoms of depression, find yourself engaging in unhealthy or compulsive behaviors, or have a general feeling that you need help, talk to your doctor or a health care professional. There is help available, and you can be feeling better and more in control of your life soon.

Whatever your situation, stress need not damage your health. If you handle your stress now, you can quickly be on the road to a healthier, happier life.

Stress and Health

Stress can affect your body in many ways.

Types of Stress

Stress can be defined as any type of change that causes physical, emotional or psychological strain. However, not all types of stress are harmful or even negative. There are a few different types of stress that we encounter:

  • Eustress, a type of stress that is fun and exciting, and keeps us vital (e.g. skiing down a slope or racing to meet a deadline)
  • Acute Stress, a very short-term type of stress that can either be positive (eustress) or more distressing (what we normally think of when we think of ‘stress') ; this is the type of stress we most often encounter in day-to-day life (e.g. skiing down said slope or dealing with road rage)
  • Episodic Acute Stress, where acute stress seems to run rampant and be a way of life, creating a life of relative chaos (e.g. the type of stress that coined the terms ‘drama queen’ and ‘absent-minded professor’)
  • Chronic Stress, the type of stress that seems never-ending and inescapable, like the stress of a bad marriage or an extremely taxing job (this type of stress can lead to burnout)
The Fight or Flight Response

Stress can trigger the body’s response to perceived threat or danger, the Fight-or-Flight response. During this reaction, certain hormones like adrenalin and cortisol are released, speeding the heart rate, slowing digestion, shunting blood flow to major muscle groups, and changing various other autonomic nervous functions, giving the body a burst of energy and strength. Originally named for its ability to enable us to physically fight or run away when faced with danger, it’s now activated in situations where neither response is appropriate, like in traffic or during a stressful day at work. When the perceived threat is gone, systems are designed to return to normal function via the relaxation response, but in our times of chronic stress, this often doesn’t happen enough, causing damage to the body.

Stress and Health: Implications of Chronic Stress

When faced with chronic stress and an overactivated autonomic nervous system, people begin to see physical symptoms. The first symptoms are relatively mild, like chronic headaches and increased susceptibility to colds. With more exposure to chronic stress, however, more serious health problems may develop. These stress-influenced conditions include, but are not limited to:

  • depression
  • diabetes
  • hair loss
  • heart disease
  • hyperthyroidism
  • obesity
  • obsessive-compulsive or anxiety disorder
  • sexual dysfunction
  • tooth and gum disease
  • ulcers
  • cancer (possibly)
In fact, most it’s been estimated that as many as 90% of doctor’s visits are for symptoms that are at least partially stress-related!

Do's and Don't's of Dealing With Anger

We all experience anger. Managed in healthy ways, anger can be a positive thing -- a red flag that something’s wrong, a catalyst for change, a good self-motivator. Handled poorly, anger can cause health and relationship problems. (See this article for more on the negative effects of anger.) For many, especially those who didn’t have positive role models for anger management while growing up, dealing with anger can be confusing; it’s hard to know what to do with such a powerful and potentially destructive emotion. Examining your anger and using other anger management techniques can positively impact your health, relationships and overall happiness. It's simple to do. Here are some proven anger management strategies.

Understand Your Anger

Dealing with anger is much easier when you know what you’re really angry about. Sometimes people may feel generally irritable because of stress, sleep deprivation, and other factors; more often, there’s a more specific reason for the anger. Either way, you can become more aware of what’s behind your anger if you keep an anger journal (a record of what makes you angry throughout the day) for a few weeks, then talk it over with a good friend, or even see a therapist to uncover underlying sources of anger, if you find yourself stumped. Once you are more aware of your sources of anger, you can take steps to deal with it.

Express Yourself—Constructively

Research shows that writing about anger and expressing it constructively can help reduce negative mood and even pain, particularly if the writing leads to ‘meaning-making,’ or speculation into the causes of the anger. This research, as well as other research on the benefits of journaling, supports the effectiveness of writing down your feelings and working through them on paper. The written expression of anger allows you to actively do something with your anger rather than just letting it make you feel bad.

Take Action

Your anger is telling you something. The first part of dealing with anger, as discussed, is examining it and listening to what it’s telling you about your life. The next part involves taking action. Knowing why you’re upset can go a long way, but eliminating your anger triggers and fixing problems that make you angry are equally important. You may not be able to eliminate everything in your life that causes you anger and frustration, but cutting out what you can should go a long way.

Don’t Obsess

Ruminating on your anger isn’t actually helpful. Studies show that, among other things, those who have a tendency to ruminate over situations that have made them angry in their past tend to experience higher blood pressure as a result, putting them at greater risk for organ damage and associated health problems. Trying to solve a problem is a good idea, but stewing in your anger is not.

Don’t Over-talk It

Discussing your anger is a tricky thing. Talking about your anger with a trusted friend can be an effective strategy for dealing with anger -- to a point. It can help you better understand your feelings, brainstorm problem-solving strategies, and strengthen your relationship. However, there’s also evidence that repeatedly discussing topics that make you angry with your friends can actually make you both feel worse, and increase stress hormones in your blood. If you’re dealing with anger by talking to friends about it, it’s best to talk about a situation only once, exploring solutions as well as your feelings. Most of us --especially the women -- have been involved in conversations that are basically complaint sessions or downward spirals of negative emotion; it’s best to change the subject to a happier topic before it gets that far. If you find yourself wanting to talk a lot about what is making you angry, it might be a good idea to schedule a few sessions with a therapist, who may have some effective ideas on dealing with anger.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Foods to Calm You Down Fast

Holiday to-do list expanding too fast? Work pressures got you tearing your hair out? No date for the season’s festivities? Regardless of the cause, when we’re stressed we often counterintuitively turn to diet-busting goodies for comfort. Instead of soothing our frayed nerves, many of them ultimately make us feel worse.Take the classic, curling up with a pint of ice cream. It's a total backfire. Why? Sweets are insidious: After the initial rush, the body's insulin response kicks in, causing a sudden blood-sugar drop that triggers the release of stress hormones. Soon you're feeling more jangled than you were before you inhaled that whole container of Chunky Monkey. And alcohol, of course, is a wolfish stimulant in calm sheep's clothing.

But true comfort foods do exist:

  • Berries, any berries. Eat them one by one instead of M&Ms when the pressure's on. For those tough times when tension tightens your jaw, try rolling a frozen berry around in your mouth. And then another, and another. Since the carbs in berries turn to sugar very slowly, you won't have a blood-sugar crash. The bonus: They're a good source of vitamin C, which helps fight a jump in cortisol, a stress hormone.
  • Guacamole. If you're craving something creamy, look no further. Avocados are loaded with B vitamins, which stress quickly depletes and which your body needs in order to maintain nerves and brain cells. Plus, their creaminess comes from healthy fat. Scoop up the stuff with whole-grain baked chips -- crunching keeps you from gritting your teeth.
  • Mixed nuts. Just an ounce will do. Walnuts help replace those stress-depleted B vitamins, Brazil nuts give you a whopping amount of zinc (which is also drained by high anxiety), and almonds boost your E, which helps fight cellular damage linked to chronic stress. Buy nuts in the shell and think of it as multitasking: With every squeeze of the nutcracker, you're releasing a little tension.
  • Oranges. People who take 1,000 milligrams of C before giving a speech have lower levels of cortisol and lower blood pressures than those who don't. So lean back, take a deep breath, and concentrate on peeling a large orange. The 5-minute mindfulness break will ease your mind, and you'll get a bunch of C as well.
  • Asparagus. Each tender stalk is a source of folic acid, a natural mood lightener. Dip the spears in fat-free yogurt or sour cream for a hit of calcium with each bite.
  • Chai tea. A warm drink is a supersoother, and curling up with a cup of aromatic decaf chai tea (Tazo makes ready-to-brew bags) can make the whole evil day go away.
  • Dark chocolate. Okay, there's nothing in it that relieves stress, but when only chocolate will do, reach for the dark, sultry kind that's at least 70% cocoa. You figure if the antioxidant flavonoids in it are potent enough to fight cancer and heart disease, they've got to be able to temper tension's effects.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Stretch for More Strength

You know why guys hate stretching? Because it's all about subtlety. Stretching doesn't give you bigger biceps, popping pecs, or amazing abs. It has multiple benefits, though, like reducing injury and improving athleticism—and yet we still don't stretch. And here's something you may not know: Regular stretching can boost your strength, according to a study in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. How? Increasing your range of motion can add mass and length to your muscles, allowing you to generate more force and lift more weight. And ultimately, of course, that leads to more muscle.

Adopt these six situational stretches for some quick fixes without going all yoga on yourself. They can help you feel younger, improve your posture, strengthen your core and back, and make your entire physique better equipped for sports, workouts, and sex. For more ways to keep your physique lean, fit and strong for life, check out these age-erasing tips.

The best stretch to do ...

While sitting at your computer: ccapular retraction

Sit in a chair with your hands on your hips and your feet flat on the floor. Gently raise your chest toward the ceiling, but don't look up; keep your chin level with the floor. Now squeeze your shoulder blades together, feeling the stretch in your chest. Hold for 10 to 15 seconds, and relax. That's one rep. Do this a total of 10 times.

Tip: When your muscles are elastic, it's easier for you to maintain good posture, says Harold Millman, D.P.T. Good posture can alleviate the muscle strain that develops when you sit for long hours at your desk.

To warm up for sports: back lunge and twist

Stand with your feet together. Now step back with your right leg and bend your left knee 90 degrees. Twist your torso to the left, extending your arms out horizontally to deepen the stretch. Then step forward to bring your feet together. Repeat the back lunge with your left leg, twisting your trunk to the right. Do a total of 10 repetitions with each leg.

Tip: Dynamic stretching is a good warmup because it gets blood flowing and excites the nervous system, says Ron DeAngelo, C.S.C.S.

For tight lats: kneeling Swiss-ball lat stretch

Kneel on the floor and place a Swiss ball in front of you. Place your hands on the ball, lean forward at your hips, and press your shoulders toward the floor. Hold for 30 seconds, and repeat twice. Do this up to three times a day.

Tip: Lie on the floor, palms facing each other. Raise your arms like you're signaling a touchdown. If you arch your lower back, bend your elbows, or rotate your palms, you need this stretch. Try these stretches and exercises to improve flexibility and build more muscle.


For healthy shoulder mobility: sleeper stretch

Lie on your left side. Form a 90-degree angle with your left arm, your upper arm on the floor and your forearm pointing up. Use your right hand to stretch your left forearm forward toward the floor without allowing your upper arm to rise. Hold for 5 seconds, do 9 more reps, and then switch sides and repeat.

Tip: A flexible rotator cuff improves your range of motion, which helps in many sports.

Before any exercise: inch worm

Start in a pushup position. Walk your feet toward your hands until the stretch in your legs starts to feel uncomfortable. Keeping your feet still, slowly walk your hands forward until you're back in pushup position. Do this 5 to 10 times.

Tip: This works your whole body, especially your legs, lower back, hips, and shoulders.

After a long day at work: corner chest stretch

Stand facing the corner of a room. Raise your arms to shoulder height and place your forearms, elbows, and hands against each wall. Lean inward to stretch your chest muscles and hold for a count of 15. Repeat for a total of 10 to 12 reps.

Tip: Raising or lowering your arms stretches different parts of your pectoral muscles.

Once you've mastered these moves, try this 30-day quick-start guide to yoga for men to destress, limber up, and maximize every muscle—it's free!

Your Body's Biggest Enemy Learn how to ward off the nasty effects of a new epidemic: Sitting Disease.

You might not want to take the following stat sitting down: According to a poll of nearly 6,300 people by the Institute for Medicine and Public Health, it's likely that you spend a stunning 56 hours a week planted like a geranium—staring at your computer screen, working the steering wheel, or collapsed in a heap in front of your high-def TV. And it turns out women may be more sedentary than men, since they tend to play fewer sports and hold less active jobs.

Even if you think you have an energetic lifestyle, sitting is how most of us spend a good part of our day. And it's killing us—literally—by way of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. All this downtime is so unhealthy that it's given birth to a new area of medical study called inactivity physiology, which explores the effects of our increasingly butt-bound, tech-driven lives, as well as a deadly new epidemic researchers have dubbed "sitting disease."

Get healthy with these 8 superfoods you should eat every day.

The modern-day desk sentence

"Our bodies have evolved over millions of years to do one thing: move," says James Levine, M.D., Ph.D., of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and author of Move a Little, Lose a Lot. "As human beings, we evolved to stand upright. For thousands of generations, our environment demanded nearly constant physical activity."

But thanks to technological advances, the Internet, and an increasingly longer work week, that environment has disappeared. "Electronic living has all but sapped every flicker of activity from our daily lives," Levine says. You can shop, pay bills, make a living, and with Twitter and Facebook, even catch up with friends without so much as standing up. And the consequences of all that easy living are profound.

When you sit for an extended period of time, your body starts to shut down at the metabolic level, says Marc Hamilton, Ph.D., associate professor of biomedical sciences at the University of Missouri. When muscles—especially the big ones meant for movement, like those in your legs—are immobile, your circulation slows and you burn fewer calories. Key flab-burning enzymes responsible for breaking down triglycerides (a type of fat) simply start switching off. Sit for a full day and those fat burners plummet by 50 percent, Levine says.

Speed up your metabolism with these easy, everyday tips.

That's not all. The less you move, the less blood sugar your body uses; research shows that for every two hours spent on your backside per day, your chance of contracting diabetes goes up by 7 percent. Your risk for heart disease goes up, too, because enzymes that keep blood fats in check are inactive. You're also more prone to depression: With less blood flow, fewer feel-good hormones are circulating to your brain.

Spending the day on your rear is also hell on your posture and spine's health, says Douglas Lentz, a certified strength and conditioning specialist and the director of fitness and wellness for Summit Health in Chambersburg, Pa. "When you sit all day, your hip flexors and hamstrings shorten and tighten, while the muscles that support your spine become weak and stiff," he says. It's no wonder that the incidence of chronic lower-back pain among women has increased threefold since the early 1990s.

Try these 101 other things you can do to improve your health instantly.

And even if you exercise, you're not immune. Consider this: We've become so sedentary that 30 minutes a day at the gym may not do enough to counteract the detrimental effects of 8, 9, or 10 hours of sitting, says Genevieve Healy, Ph.D., a research fellow at the Cancer Prevention Research Centre of the University of Queensland in Australia. That's one big reason so many women still struggle with weight, blood sugar, and cholesterol woes despite keeping consistent workout routines.

In a recent study, Healy and her colleagues found that regardless of how much moderate to vigorous exercise participants did, those who took more breaks from sitting throughout the day had slimmer waists, lower body mass indexes, and healthier blood fat and blood sugar levels than those who sat the most. In an extensive study of 17,000 people, Canadian researchers drew an even more succinct conclusion: The longer you spend sitting each day, the more likely you are to die an early death—no matter how fit you are.

The non-exercise answer

So if exercise alone isn't the solution, what is? Fortunately, it's easier than you think to ward off the perils of prolonged parking. Just ramp up your daily non-exercise activity thermogenesis—or NEAT. That's the energy (i.e., calories) you burn doing everything but exercise. It's having sex, folding laundry, tapping your toes, and simply standing up. And it can be the difference between wearing a sarong or flaunting your bikini on your next beach vacation.

In his groundbreaking study on NEAT, the Mayo Clinic's Levine used motion-sensing underwear (hot, huh?) to track every single step and fidget of 20 people who weren't regular exercisers (half of them were obese; half were not). After 10 days, he found that the lean participants moved an average of 150 minutes more per day than the overweight people did—enough to burn 350 calories, or about one cheeseburger.

Fidgeting, standing, and puttering may even keep you off medications and out of the doctor's office. Think of your body as a computer: As long as you're moving the mouse and tapping the keys, all systems are go. But let it idle for a few minutes, and the machine goes into power-conservation mode. Your body is meant to be active, so when you sit and do nothing for too long, it shuts down and burns less energy. Getting consistent activity throughout the day keeps your metabolism humming along in high gear.

When you get out of your chair and start moving around, you turn on fat burners. Simply standing up fries three times as many calories as sitting on your butt, according to Levine. And, he adds, "NEAT activity can improve blood flow and increase the amount of serotonin available to the brain, so that your thinking becomes sharper and you'll be less likely to feel depressed."

Six health reasons you should get active.

Get your move on

Shake things up throughout the day by interrupting your sedentary stints as often as possible. "Stand up every half hour," says Neville Owen, Ph.D., of the University of Queensland. "If you have to sit for longer than that, take more extended and active breaks and move around for a few minutes before sitting back down."

When you're reading e-mail and taking phone calls, do it standing. Walk with colleagues to brainstorm ideas. And consider trading your chair for a large stability ball. "It forces you to engage your muscles, and you're likely to stand up more because you're not melting into a chair," Lentz says.

At home, it's simple: Limit TV time to two hours a day or less. Better yet, watch it from a treadmill or exercise bike. Among women, the risk for metabolic syndrome—a constellation of health woes including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high blood sugar—shoots up 26 percent for every hour per day they spend watching the tube.

Not sure how much of a difference these mini moves will make? Check out the chart below. Swapping a more active approach for just a few of your daily activities can help stave off the one- to two-pound weight gain most women accumulate every year—and it can keep your metabolism buzzing the way nature intended it to.

Instead of this Calories burned per hour Do this Calories burned per hour
Sitting at your desk 83 Stand at your desk 115
Riding the elevator 128 Take the stairs 509
Shopping online 96

Shop at the mall
(walking briskly and carrying packages)

147
Calling for takeout 96 Cook at home 128
Talking on the phone seated 102 Pace while chatting 147
E-mailing
a co-worker
96 Walk to her office 128
Watching TV 64 Make out 96
Playing a seated video game 32 Play Wii 178
Total Calories 697
1,448
Based on a 140-pound woman