Have you ever returned from a trip and found your home to be a disaster? Have you looked at the sink in your kitchen, piled with dirty dishes and told yourself “I really have to clean that” only to walk right past it? Is your office so cluttered with papers, post-its, bills and junk that you can no longer use that space? How about your bathroom? Is it difficult to find a space to put your hairbrush without having to move the hairdryer or facial soap? When you walk across your bedroom floor do you trip over shoes and pair of pants? In your living room, do you need to move over books, toys, magazines and misc stuff just to find a place to set your drink on the coffee table?
If you answered “yes” to any or all of the above questions than you are essentially hand-cuffing your ability to function Read More...
In this article, I’d like to share with you a very important idea I learned while at a weekend retreat at The Kripalu Center in Lenox, MA. When our group of 40 gathered on the floor, our first instruction was to take a deep breath. Now this might sound simplistic, but I’m much more used to shallow breathing and hyperventilation.
I had never taken more than one or two deep breaths at a time and here we were doing them for many minutes. It was difficult to focus on just my breath. My mind so desperately wanted to multi- task and think of other things. Closing my eyes helped. I continued to breathe deeply when instructed, which was frequently during the weekend. When the retreat was over, I felt Read More...
Wow! Thanks for all the wonderful entries in this month’s contest. I’d like to add a suggestion to the stress management contest–whenever a person is feeling stressed, a great option would be to read all the comments in this post and follow what rings true at that moment. The entries go to show that there isn’t ONE correct answer for everyone, or even one option that works every time for the same person. However, there are LOTS of great ideas.
First place and winner of an Expect Success book is Jeff Johnson Read More...
Ever notice your neck and shoulders hurt after a stressful day? You’re probably holding a lot of tension in those muscles. Here are some stress relief tips and exercises for your body after a rough day, from family and lifestyle correspondent Ylonda Caviness.
Stress Relief Tips and Exercises – How to Relieve Stress
In our everyday life, we often run into stress events ranging from deadlines at work, traffic jams and dealing with uncooperative people. Life events such as a new baby, a death of a loved one or moving can add even more pressure.
Unmanaged stress can lead to high blood pressure, ulcers and even heart attacks. Often times we cannot control the events that lead to stress, but we can control our response to it.
For this month’s contest, we want to know your advice on how to deal with the stressful events – big or small.
An appropriate amount of stress is vital to motivate and build resilience in character. However, it should not overwhelm you. The key to successful stress management lies in taking charge: you have to effectively deal with schedule demands, your thoughts, your emotions and occasional situation crises.
When you are in control, you will experience a balanced life coupled with minimal stress. The constant need to work within deadlines may leave you mentally drained. However, applying stress management tips will enable you to identify and improve your overall quality of life. Listed below are 10 tips for stress management applicable to Read More...
Have you ever heard of the 80/20 Rule? It is also known as the Pareto Principle or the Rule of the Vital Few and it states that there is an imbalance between causes and results, between effort and reward.
The world is not equal where effort and reward are related. The Pareto Principle basically says:
- The majority of what you do each day (80%) has little impact.
- A minority (20%) has a major impact.
Here are some 80/20 rules and what you might want to do once you are aware of them:
80% of your profit is brought in by 20% of your clients.
Realize all clients are NOT equal. It is sometimes Read More...
Think about it: From the moment we wake up to the second we go to sleep, we are making decisions about how we spend our time. I’d like to share with you my secret weapon for making smarter time choices and reducing stress: I ask myself the BEST time management question:
What is the BEST use of my time, right now?
For example, this morning when the alarm went off, I had to decide whether to get out of bed to exercise (which I know will make me feel energized all day) OR hit the snooze button and get a little more sleep (which I felt I could use). Today, I decided to get up and exercise (hence I have energy to write this column!) while other days the answer to question is to hit the snooze button. Both are smart Read More...
Meditation has been practiced for centuries. Just now the western world is starting to embrace its power to heal the body, calm the mind and enrich the spirit.
If you have never tried to meditate, or don’t even know what it is, this video guides you through a meditation to calm your thoughts and experience your greatness.
As you’re coming into full swing the holidays, this article is guaranteed to take some of the stress out of the holidays and help you kick off the New Year with harmony in all areas of your life.
A great first step is to simply take some quiet time for yourself and come up with you priority list. Things that are meaningful to you. Go to lunch by yourself, or at least get to a place that you will be uninterrupted for a half hour or more and think about the things that want and need to do as you wrap up the New Year. I call this creating your “wish list.” Amidst all the craziness of your days, I realize this might seem unrealistic. But more likely than not there are Read More...
Have you ever returned from a trip and found your home to be a disaster? Have you looked at the sink in your kitchen, piled with dirty dishes and told yourself “I really have to clean that” only to walk right past it? Is your office so cluttered with papers, post-its, bills and junk that you can no longer use that space? How about your bathroom? Is it difficult to find a space to put your hairbrush without having to move the hairdryer or facial soap? When you walk across your bedroom floor do you trip over shoes and pair of pants? In your living room, do you need to move over books, toys, magazines and misc stuff just to find a place to set your drink on the coffee table?
Remember to Breathe! 
