Mental Health, Quality of Life, Science
As Christmas items begin filling my mailbox and the shelves in my favorite stores I find it challenging to focus on anything other than making the holidays meaningful for my family.
Gift lists, special events, extra cooking, shopping, and decorating – I honestly love it all but I can absolutely feel myself beginning to experience the physical signs of stress from the very moment that I spot that first Christmas light. …
We all know that stress isn’t good for us – it doesn’t even feel good – the racing heart, and tensed muscles are pretty obvious and uncomfortable. But I was a little surprised how seriously damaging chronic stress can be to our brains …
Chronic stress can increase distraction, forgetfulness, negativity, anxiety, fear, and aggression. Continuous exposure to stress hormones can decrease brain function and the generation of new neurons ‘critical for learning, memory, emotional regulation and shutting off the stress response after the stressful event is over’ ultimately creating a negative impact on decision making, working memory, complex cognitive behavior, and moderation of social interaction and impulse control – going so far as to change the physical structure of your brain!
‘The result is a brain that is less capable of learning and memory, and more prone to anxiety and depression’ with ‘significant consequences on the way we interact with others, our ability to learn, remember, make decisions and accomplish long-term goals.’ Making it more ‘difficult to successfully manage stressful situations in the future, leading to a vicious cycle.’
Sounds pretty dreary -lucky for us EXERCISE is a ‘very effective antidote to these negative effects’ which ‘can help build a stress-resistant brain in addition to increasing cognitive function and brain size.’
So, like I mentioned last week, even though you may want to hibernate as the temperature falls, keep moving your body and you might experience the most wonderful time of the year as your best self. And just in case you aren’t doing your Minute Movements – now would be a fabulous time to start!
Further reading:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jenny-c-evans/how-stress-is-literally-m_b_6064966.html
http://www.webmd.com/balance/stress-management/stress-symptoms-effects_of-stress-on-the-body
Lifestyle
I consider myself lucky to have spent the past sixteen years or so being able to primarily focus my time and energy on raising my children and supporting my husband in his various business ventures. When our son was born and I started my new career as a stay at home mom I was committed to excellence and determined to take this task seriously. But we were among the first of our group of friends to start a family and I had never taken any ‘Home Economics’ classes so I started reading everything I could find that would help me do a good job.
In one of those books I came across the concept of a weekly family meeting. I was drawn to the idea of coming together every week to discuss our schedules, plans, hopes, and dreams – even though our schedule was quite manageable at that time – and I implemented the Sunday Family Meeting right away. While we sat together at the dining room table this afternoon I found myself reflecting what an important role those meetings have held for our family.
Besides the obvious perk of knowing where everyone will be throughout the week (and who’s in charge of getting them there – which is huge in and of itself – our family meetings have helped in so many other areas. Everyone has learned how to put their appointments on the family calendar (now we share our respective google calendars with each other) and by second grade both of my children knew when they were available for a playdate and what events to prepare for each day because they knew their schedule. They also learned how an official meeting is conducted (although we leave room for fun), goal setting (we set weekly goals), and accountability.
Probably the biggest impact of those meetings has been the bond that has been forged around the table. When we talk about the week ahead we practice caring about what others have going on in their lives and supporting each other when something especially difficult was ahead of one of us. We’ve practiced paying attention to the needs of others and sharing empathy through our prayer requests. We’ve practiced problem solving skills while we discuss our ‘issues’ (sometimes the same issues every week for months), we’ve learned about planning for fun events, and we’ve learned how to celebrate the successes of others as well as acknowledging when someone helps us or does well.
To top it off, I have been keeping ‘the minutes’ of each meeting in little composition notebooks so I can look back at the day we celebrated Zak learning to ride a bicycle without training wheels or when Morgan got her braces off. Our family meetings have made our lives more simple (through organization) and at the same time richer in so many ways and I highly recommend them.
Quality of Life
As the weather turns cold (frigid) here in the mid-west and the darkness comes earlier I find myself leaning toward ‘hibernation mode’. More than one time today I thought that my ideal week would be one in which I didn’t have to put on ‘real’ clothes or go outside – AT ALL, opting instead to sit by the fire with a cup of tea and a book, surrounded by blankets and the sounds of lovely music. But, that’s just a nice daydream and I’m sure there would be something about that scenario that would be less than perfect.
It’s easy to want to hunker down when we enter the cold season but it’s not the best choice for our bodies – or our minds. I was doing a little research today and ran across this article in the Huffington Post listing 13 Mental Health Benefits Of Exercise (see link below) and I began to think about how a decrease in activity could (just my hypothesis here) contribute to or worsen some of the negative effects that winter has on our mental state.
So before you resign yourself to big sweaters and melancholy for the next five months consider these benefits of keeping a little movement in your day (refer to the article for additional insight).
- Reduce Stress
- Boost Happy Chemicals
- Improve Self-Confidence
- Enjoy the Great Outdoors
- Prevent Cognitive Decline
- Alleviate Anxiety
- Boost Brainpower
- Sharpen Memory
- Help Control Addiction
- Increase Relaxation
- Get More Done
- Tap Into Creativity
- Inspire Others
Don’t let winter get you down, stay motivated and …
Make Your Minutes Matter!
Minute Movement Lessons, Minute Movement Philosophies, Motivation, Quality of Life
Do you have a passion that drives you or do you find it difficult to identify the deep forces that motivate you?
I’ve struggled with being aware of my passions from time to time and have even lived parts of my life unaware of why I do what I do. I thought I would share some of the questions that I use to help me that become aware of my passions.
Examine yourself:
What brings you deep joy?
What do you spend your time doing that brings you peace?
What is important to you?
What would you do if you only had one day to live?
When you were young what did you enjoy doing with your time?
What makes you laugh?
If you remove what you think you should be doing, now what would you be doing?
When you find your passion you will discover abundant energy, clarity, joy, and motivation. When you operate from a place of passion, you will be more present with yourself and equally important, you will be more present for others.
Minute Movement Lessons, Motivation, Quality of Life, Tools
What is one small thing that you can do this week that could make a profound impact – either on your life, someone you love, or something you believe in?
You probably know by now that I believe that micro decisions create Macro Results and as I think about that today, I think I want to focus on something this week that will make a difference in the life of those around me. This week I will focus on listening better – as I go through my day, talking with people; I want to listen to them on a deeper level and really connect with them better than I ever have before.
So what is one small thing that you can do this week? What’s that one thing you’ve been putting off that would really make a difference? Maybe it’s getting up five minutes earlier and making coffee for your spouse, maybe it’s writing a letter to a loved one that you haven’t talked to in awhile. I encourage you to ask yourself, ‘What is that one thing?’ – and then do it .
Post your one thing on our Facebook page so the Minute Mover community can stand with you .
Make your minutes matter.
