Be Good to You!

"When we're young we find comfort with peers," a friend mused. "When we're older we find comfort in food... Go figure!" I laughed at first, but reflected more... Do you find space to be good to you? Comfort activities can make a difference to your well-being...

Comfort Zones... One of my favorite comfort activities is putting on a fuzzy robe, sliding into slippers and settling back in a cozy chair with a good book. Another is a walk along the Erie Canal which is wondrous with every changing season... What's your favorite way to completely relax?

No Time to Relax?... In the midst of harried jobs, pressures at home, and even pressures from great community groups, do you seemingly run on a treadmill 24/7? This kind of lifestyle opens itself to a lot of Cortisol, a brain chemical often referred to as the stress hormone. Why should you care about cortisol? Dr. Ellen Weber reveals prolonged levels will...

1. Lower your immune system so you’ll get sick faster than others
2. Slow down your thinking
3. Create blood sugar imbalances
4. Raise your blood pressure
5. Weaken muscle tissue
6. Decrease bone density
7. Increase fat in the stomach areas

Pretty scary, eh? And often this happens because of the best intentions. People work hard, moms and dads give their all to children, upkeep of home, to parents. But, in the midst of all this they never learn to be good to themselves. They're drained! The only activity left is couch potato, which is not of any value since it causes folks to get further behind or feel guilty.

Being Good To You... Have you ever thought of planning to be good to yourself... to actually schedule it... jot it into your Daily or Weekly Planner? It doesn't need to take a lot of time either. What kind of activity would make your day or your week? Keep in mind variety makes this more fun as well...

Benefits... I never used to plan time in my schedule to be good to me, but do so now, and I feel ever so much less tension in my neck and shoulders. Just anticipating a fun time can release serotonin, a hormone of well-being. And, when we take time for ourselves, we'll actually have more within ourselves to give out at work and to those we love most...

Planning special fun activities, just for ourselves, in the course of busy weeks not only renews well-being, but also jazzes life... What do you have in mind?

Play to Recharge Your Brain

Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy. Guillaume Apollinaire

Most days when I take time to "play" golf, enjoy a festival or simply walk in the woods, I come back to my work very refreshed. Fact is, after I relax I work faster and with more focus. Is that true for you as well? There's more truth to this than meets the eye. The brain needs a break!

Want to see where you stand? Take this burnout test.

"You need more time to fix burnout," explains Joe Robinson, author of Work To Live: The Guide to Getting a Life. The trick is to cut yourself off from a stressor, Joe maintains, for a sufficient amount of time to give your mind and body a break. After major stressors, your body needs two weeks to rebound.

Here's some reasons why we need more play in our lives... "A recent English study shows that if you are sleep-deprived for 72 hours, the stress hormone levels rise and the brain stops making new cells" according to a recent BUSINESS LINE article, Give more power to your immune system... make it stronger

The fact that our brain shuts down and stops making new brain cells is a pretty scary situation and we need to act!

Joe Robinson offers some sound advice about how to make play and relaxation work for you and not against you...

"You have to unpack before you pack," is the way Robinson sees it. "Put together an unpacking list of the stuff that has no business going with you," he advises. These include work worries, the boss, colleagues, career progress, laptops, pagers, cell phones. Stash it until you get back.

To the pile of stuff you leave home add your guilt over taking a vacation. You also have to put aside the productivity yardstick and remember how to "do" leisure.

Here are a couple of suggestions:

• Target your passions and build your vacation around the things you like to do.
• Wander. Yes, relearn how to explore and discover, with no other purpose.
• Linger with a friend over dinner.
• Put on your kid hat. Connect with play.

How might you target time for a mini-break to relax today? Play increases serotonin, a hormone of well-being, in your brain. I desperately need some. You?

Shhh...don't tell anyone, but I'm making a dive for the links today. Happiness...you bet!