5 Advanced Stress Management Techniques
Stress is everywhere in modern life. Some of it is chronic, everyday stress. And some of it can be extreme, brought on by situation and choices. Today I'll look at some advanced stress management techniques that don't get (in my opinion) enough coverage, but can be extremely useful.
5 Basic Stress Management Techniques
Stress, either chronic or acute, can have major impacts on your productivity and happiness. Today we will look at 5 basic ways to manage your stress.
Stress Makes You Stupid
Stress, the flight or flight response, is a necessary part of being human. It's what kept us from being eaten by things in the distant past. There are a whole lot of physical changes that occur while stressed, but there are also mental changes as well. Most of us don't have to worry about being dinner for some hungry animal these days, and yet, the stress response is alive and well. In the past week, I've heard from three different sources that "stress makes you stupid." Given my recent experience with extreme stress and the brain fog that went with it, I have to agree, and so I wanted to look into this phenomena as well as give some tips to get through it.
30 Day Challenge: Early Rising Wrap-up
The challenge to myself was to craft and implement an early-morning routine. This was created because I wanted to have consistent time to read non-fiction, write, and do some basic self-care activities like journaling and stretching every morning. While I had some challenges in working with my natural rhythms, I accomplished much more than I expected and gained a sense of satisfaction of important tasks done, even on the busiest of days.
The Night Owl’s Guide to Early Productivity
To people who are night owls either by nature or circumstance, getting up to do a productive morning routine can seem impossible. But it's possible to claim this quiet and uninterrupted time for yourself. I am biologically wired to do better at night. I catch a second wind at about 9 pm, and then I am off to the races, mentally alert and ready to flex my creative muscles. If I give in to it, I will work until 1 or 2 am, at which point I force myself to go to bed because I know the consequences rather than because I'm tired. I don't allow this to happen often. After all, I am employed outside the home, and I adhere to my employer's and client's expectations that I will be in the office during business hours. Taking advantage of that second wind means that I am…
30 Day Challenge: Early Rising
Welcome to the second of the 30 day challenges. By doing 30 day challenges, I explore a topic that I feel will make my life more deliberate and productive. This month I will be looking at rising earlier. My schedule is such that I feel busy all the time. I don't feel like have uninterrupted time. I get up, go to work, and then when I get home I am bombarded with household tasks, exercising, and various evening commitments, not least of which is time with my family. I felt like I never had time to work on projects that were important to me. Non-fiction reading, fiction writing, blogging and crafting are wedged into the odd fifteen minutes I can find. I feel that working on an early-rising routine will help me carve out the time I need to make progress on activities I want to have…
What To Do When Crisis Hits
Crisis can happen in the blink of an eye. One minute life is normal, and then everything is different. It could be anything that rocks your stability: death, divorce, accident, layoff, shutdown. But crisis comes to us all, and it's important to know what to do. My own personal experience with crisis was major - eleven years ago my husband fell twenty feet off of a ladder and spent two days in neuro ICU. But I learned some lessons about what to do before and during a crisis, and how to support others in their own.
Switching To Deliberate Living
Someone asked me recently why I have made this switch to deliberate living. He said it seemed like over-thinking and too much structure; why not just go with the flow? It’s been brought home to me that none of us live forever and we have limited time on this earth. I don’t want to look back at my life and realize I accomplished nothing because I frittered away my time on social media or pointless tasks or projects that were thrust upon me by others. This is my life, and I want to be able to live it according to how I feel is best. Another person asked me how deliberate living is different from intentional living. I think it depends on what you consider the word “intentional” to mean. Intent, to me, is just the mindset, but doesn’t necessarily bear out in the action. And the…
