FROM: Steve

I just heard that in the United States 80-85% of all doctor visits involve problems related to STRESS!  No surprise, eh?!  While it is difficult to actually remove the stress in our lives the most effective treatments include ways to deal with the stress on a daily basis and thus reduce the harmful effects..

The best, quickest, and most effective thing you can do to take charge of your stress is to Take a Deep Breath!

Now there is a certain way of doing this that insures that it will be effective. 

Here are three tips for doing it well:

1.  Breathe with your belly.  A lot of people tend to breathe using mostly their upper chest, especially in tense situations.  Think of a tense situation that just happened in your own life.  Try to picture it in your mind and pay attention to how you felt and how you were breathing at the time.  If you weren’t paying attention to how you were breathing then, do a quick bodyscan right now and see how you are breathing right now as you reproduce the incident and feeling.  Are you breathing faster and higher in your chest?  Most people do when feeling stressed.

So it is better to breathe from your belly.  When you breathe in allow the air to fill your lower chest, pushing down your diapragm and letting your belly expand instead of your chest.  Then gently push your breath out by letting your belly settle back to it’s normal position (or you might want to contract your belly a bit past normal to help push the last little bit of breath out).  Try it a few times.  Do it slowly and smoothly. 

 2.  Slow your breathing to 10 or fewer breaths per minute.   This is important and not particularly hard to do.  Pay attention to splitting each breath into two parts–the Inbreath and the Outbreath.  Now take a breath and let it out fully.  Then when you begin taking the next inbreath start counting slowly to 5 (representing 5 seconds).  When you get to 5 roll smoothly into your outbreath and count slowly to 5 again.  Repeat this several times.  This rhythm represents a breathing rate of 6 full breaths per minute.  You should not feel out of breath and you most likely will feel a sense of relaxation as your blood fills with oxygen and carries it to your brain resulting in clear, calm thinking.   Try it, you’ll like it!

3.  Take a deep, full relaxing breath whenever you feel stressed!  This will take some awareness on your part.  You will need to pay attention to when you are in a stressful situation and feeling tense.  One way to tell is by noticing if you are breathing shallow and fast (this is how the body automatically deals with stress, called fight or flight breathing).  When you notice this stop and take several (or at least one!) deep breaths as described above.  There doesn’t need to be a big dramatic shift.  In fact no one need know or even notice the change in your breathing.  But what they may notice is how much more calmly and efficiently you act!!   As a nurse, I got into the habit of stopping outside the door to my patient’s room to take a slow, deep breath before I entered.  I noticed my subsequent time with the patient went much smoother and calmer! 

And finally, you may want to practice this deep therapeutic breathing for a longer period of time each day.  Try sitting somewhere quiet and peaceful and breathe like this for 5 minutes or even 10 mintes, if you have time.  After a few days you may notice your frantic reactions to stress melt away.   You will feel healthier and actually be healthier!  Try it!

FROM:  Steve

To take charge of your health we have established that it is better (easier) to use the “A” word instead of the “E” word (Activity vs. Exercise).  And we need to get moving every day, especially if we have  been sitting or standing around most of the time and have gained a few pounds as we’ve grown older.   So how do we think about what we need to do to feel and be healthier. 

Fitness is the answer!!  Our goal is to increase our fitness.  Research has shown that fit men and women of all ages have stronger hearts with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease–that means less chance of a heart attack.   This also means higher quality of life, which in my book equates with happiness!!

I recommend a simple method to get fit and maintain your fitness and here it is:

     Do at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity on most (five or more) days of the week.

Let’s examine this prescription for fitness a little closer.  The italics highlight three important steps here.

1. Do 30 minutes of physical activity each day.  Research has shown that you don’t even need to do it all at one time.  You can split it up into 2-15 minute periods or even 3-10 minute periods. 
2. Choose moderate-intensity activities.  Moderate-intensity physical activities are equal in effort to a brisk walk, walking a mile in 15-20 minutes.  If you walk, you may need to work yourself up to speed in this case.  But in general, this is a healthy pace.  However, you can do other moderate-intensity activities like:  Bicycling (10-12 mph), dancing, gardening and yard work,  golfing (without a cart), hiking, playing actively with children, raking leaves, playing volleyball, or even washing and waxing your car.
3. Be active most days of the week.  If you can be active to this level every day, then that is GREAT!  But research has shown that you can achieve fitness by being physically active as little as 5 days per week.

Remember the most important way to achieve fitness, as in any skill, is to practice, practice, practice!!!  The activity outlined here is simple.  But the hard part is to DO IT!!!  Get started and don’t stop!  Make it a part of your daily life.  Commit your self to a life of active living and you will experience a long , happy, healthy life! 

 NOTE:  Research supporting this model of fitness was reported by Steven Blair and colleagues at the Cooper Institute, Dallas, Texas.

FROM: Steve

For those of you who need some concrete motivation to take charge of your health and get up and get moving, the evidence from scientific studies is as solid as a rock:  Physical activity is crucial to good health and overall well-being.  Here’s what we know for sure:

1. People who are phusically active are less likely than people who are inactive to die of heart disease and some types of cancer, such as colon cancer.
2. As they get older, active people have a better quality of life and suffer fewer disabilities than inactive people.
3. Physical activity helps keep blood pressure down, minimizes bone loss as we age, and lowers the risk of developing Type-2 diabetes.
4. Physical activity helps people maintain their weight effectively.
5. People who are regularly active report feeling  less stressed and more able to cope with life than when they were inactive.  They are less likely to feel depressed or anxious than sedentary people.
6. Many people in physical activity studies report feeling more energetic and productive than before they increased their activity.
7. People who become physically active often report sleeping better than when they were inactive.

And finally,  daily physical activity could help you ward off cold and flu bugs.  Not long ago, exercise physiologist David Nieman and colleagues, studied 32 women–some who got no exercise and some of whom took up walking as daily activity.  After 12 weeks, the nonwalkers reported twice as many days with cold or flu symptoms as the walkers.  Blood tests showed that the women in the walking group had boosted their immune systems.  Since then, many other studies have shown that moderate physical activity–a 30-minute brisk walk repeated on most days of the week–can bolster the body’s immune defenses.

Need I say more?!  Take care and be well!

From: Steve

So with the start of 2010 you may have decided to take charge of your health for the new year and the rest of your life.  You have some great thoughts and may have even made some plans to do some great things for your health like get moving more, eating better, breathing more consciously for alertness as well as relaxation.  Sounds good!  So here a few thoughts to help you on your way.  I heard these a few years ago and want to share some of them with you.

What a sublime joy it is to be on your way, momentum becomes your partner.  By filling your moments with effective and productive action, you put time itself on your side.  Your world can change in an instant from dismal to hopeful when you start making the real effort to do something about it.  Certainly there will be frustrastions, but even one or two small setbacks can inspire you to move on.

Get on your way and you will discover conditions and events moving you forward, conditions and events you previously thought would have only held you back.  Get on your way, and you will soon be turning liabilities into assets–weaknesses into strengths.

Express your committment to make something positive happen by actually beginning to do it.  You can think and plan and hope and  dream, yet the real fulfillment begins as soon as you get on your way.

So join me and get moving now.  Let’s work together to make our lives the best that they can be.  Namaste.

FROM: Steve

Who’s in charge of your health?  Is it your doctor?  Is it your spouse?  Is it the ads you see on TV or in magazines or on the internet?  I have met many people who would defer to any or all of the above.  But you and I know that I am in charge of my own health and you are in charge of your own health.  What this means is that I make the primary decisons about what to do when I fall ill or need medical care.  I make it a point to seek out information from a variety of sources including my personal physician or the nurse who lives next door or the myriad of cybersources I can find on my computer  But in the end I make the decison of what I will do to feel better.  I take personal responsibility for my health and I hope you do too.

Several years ago the social researcher Gail Sheehy, author of “Passages” and “New Passages,” wrote that for the first half of our lives most of us are not particularly in charge of how we do our lives.  She points out that as children we do what our parents want us to do–indeed what they tell us to do.  Even as teenagers and young adults we tend to live our lives based on what we learned from our family of origin, even if we try our darndest to rebel!  After all, our primary sources of information about making decisions about healthful and successful living are the familiar ones we learned while growing up in our families whether consciously or unconsciously. 

Sheehy goes on to relate that even well into adulthood, indeed up through our late 40’s and into our fifties, we tend to make choices about career, romance, marriage, family, finances, recreation, health, etc. based on how we saw decisions being made in our families of origin.  Sure, we may not be making the exact same choices as our moms and dads and uncles and aunts, but we may be making them in the same ways.  Anyway even as adults we may not have as much freedom and diversity as we think.  Many times we think we have to do things the same way as those who came before us.  Think about it.  Did you feel any pressure (again perhaps even unconsciously) to act a certain way, to be a certain way, to live a certain kind of life?

In her book, “New Passages,” Sheehy proposes that in midlife and beyond we all have the opportunity to live a “second adulthood.”  In this second adulthood we realize that perhaps we did lived our first adulthood the way we thought (and were taught) how it should be done, whether we knew it or not.  But in our 50’s our kids are grown, we’ve built a career and successfully worked at it for a sufficient amount of time and are nearing retirement.  And we are looking forward to another 40 years or so of life!  Yes, life expectancies are extending into the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s!   The fact is that most of us realistically have as much time ahead of us as we have lived already. 

Sheehy suggests that since we have lived our first adulthood fulfilling the dreams of others, consciously  or unconsciously, that now we can change.  We can consciously choose to live  our second adulthoods truly how we want.  No more need to live up to what others think.  We are old enough and smart enough and experienced enough to do what we want to be happy and healthy!  We can become truly free and independent!  We can finally TAKE CHARGE of our lives!  What an exciting thought!

We can therefore take charge of our health, fully and finally.  We can do what we need to do to live another 30, 40, 50 years happily and healthfully.  We can choose to do so right now.  No need to wait.  No need to do what our parents did (heck, my dad and grandad both stroked out and died at 65!  I intend to do better!).  No need to do only what our doctors tell us to do (I want to learn how live a healthy lifestyle and let my doctor, rightly so, take care of any acute illness that may happen). 

I want to live a long, happy, healthy life until I’m 100!  I am taking charge of my health to make sure that happens.  I want to show you how to take charge, too.  Join me here and at www.heartspacecoaching.com to learn how.

FROM:  Steve

If you are going to start taking charge of your health I suggest you begin  using the “A” word and forget about the “E” word.  Do you have any idea what I am talking about?   Well, I’m referring to using the the word “Active” instead of “Excercise.”  I’m talking about getting physical!

One of the most important steps in taking charge of your health is to be active every day meaning  to do some physical actiivty every day.  This is especially true if you are in midlife or beyond and want to be healthy and happy and enjoy the rest of your life.  This is also particularly important if you have been rather sedentary up until the present.

Now I’m sure you’ve all heard the advice from your doctor to get some exercise–the dreaded “E” word!  Well, I know I have, and I used to cringe at that word–EXERCISE.   Exercise means hard work, sweat, aches and pains, huffing and puffing,  etc.–generally something unpleasant, right!?  But I am here to tell you that it does not have to be that way!!  Really!

For those of you who are looking to take charge of your health, DON’T start with exercise.  I want you to start by being active every day!  And if you have been mostly sedentary you’ll even want to start slowly.  Being sedentary at midlife and beyond is dangerous.  It is incompatible with living a long, happy, healthy life.  So get up once or twice a day and walk.  Walk for two minutes.  Get off the bus one block early and walk the rest of the way to work;  park at the back of the parking lot and walk to your office; walk a block for lunch; walk around for two minutes during your coffee break; take a two minute walk during TV commercials.  This is being active.  Don’t call it exercise.  Hey, it’s not bad doing sedentary things, but balance them out with some physical activity every day.  Other activities you can start doing right now (that are NOT exercise) are walking up and down stairs a couple times a day at work or at home (start with one flight); if you do walk during the day, try walking a little faster; don’t be afraid to bend over or reach for things–keeps you flexible; dance, garden, even do housework  a bit brisker.  Just do some activity every day or, at least, every other day! 

This is another great way to take charge of your health.  Don’t be ashamed of not exercising like the runners you see in the park!  Be proud of being active every day!  You will feel better and want to increase your activity.  Walking once or twice around the block may eventually lead to longer walks at a quicker pace and before you know it you will be feeling a lot better about yourself.  It CAN happen!  It WILL happen!

So forget about the dreaded “E” word.  You can do it!  This is a start!  Get up and get going.  Take charge and start to feel better.  And come back here often to learn more about how “A”ctive living every day can lead to lifelong vitality!! 

Next time I’ll talk about GOALS and being fit!  I think you’ll be surprised.  I know I was!  Take care and be well!