How to Reduce
Stress - Helps in Weight Loss Efforts and Keep you Younger
June 26th, 2006
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Yoga Mind Body &
Spirit Book |
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On 20/20 last
Friday, one topic that was discussed was stress and how it causes us to
age and gain weight. It was assumed that sun was the only cause of
wrinkles, but the truth is, stress also contributes to wrinkles. There
is also evidence the increased stress levels help to raise cortisol
levels that trigger the storage of body fat.
One big
contributor to stress is called NUT, which stands for Nagging,
Unfinished, Tasks. So if your desk is piled high, and you are
constantly behind this is causing stress that is aging you and making
you fat. How can you organize your schedule to manage your chores and
not feel overwhelmed?
There are many
seminar tapes on procrastination and books too. The one thing that
works to getting your tasks complete is to schedule an appointment for a
task that is nagging at you to get completed. Whether it is to take out
the trash at home or a big project that needs multiple sessions to be
completed, you need to schedule your time for job. By planning in
advance you become committed to the task at hand. That means that you
won’t miss out on completing the job at hand.
When the scheduled
time arrives for completing the nagging task set you mind to the task at
hand. Don’t allow yourself any other tasks to complete during that
time. If you have a hard time getting started tell yourself that you
only need to work for 5 minutes with full focus on the task. By
limiting the amount of time you feel committed to doing the awful
dreaded task, the more likely you will put more effort in completing
it. There is a good chance that you will keep on going until the task
gets completed. If you find that you want to take a break, pause and do
something enjoyable for 5 minutes, and then go back and give yourself 5
minutes again on the task that you don’t enjoy.
Many times the
backlog is so immense that you do not know where to begin, so you never
want to start. Break your tasks into smaller jobs. Write down on paper
the smaller tasks and decide which are the most important task and the
sequence that is logical to complete them. Sometimes you have to do
tasks first before other tasks can be completed.
After you have
your list, you can sit down at a calendar and schedule time for each
task. It might be on a Saturday, or it could be during the work day.
If you only have 5 minutes to devote it still counts. Put on your
schedule to spend 5 minutes on the task.
Pretty soon you
will have caught up with what you got behind on. Another benefit is
that you learn a skill of setting up a schedule to accomplish your
goals. Don’t be afraid to say no if your schedule is overbooked.
Sometimes we do things that are not a priority and we are overwhelmed
because we have over scheduled our lives. You might have to cut your
schedule down in order to reduce your stress. Either delegate the jobs
to someone else, if possible, or skip it if it is not important.
Another way to
reduce stress is to do Yoga or meditation. These exercises relax the
nervous system and slow down the stress response. Make time for
reducing your stress by taking a few moments to sit still or stretch
with some Yoga poses. Exercise in general is also a great stress
reducer. So exercising every day would benefit you greatly.
On 20/20 they also
suggested that people were able to reduce stress by being in contact
with 6 people that you care about every month. By getting together with
these people you will likely be happier and have less stress.
Reducing stress
can help you to lose more weight and can slow down aging. Learning to
relax and handle stressful situation with a calm approach takes
practice. It can be difficult because we naturally have a built in
fight or flight approach to stressful situations. However, avoiding
problems, and getting upset usually add up to more stress and more
problems. If you learn to manage stress levels, you can improve your
overall health.
Nicole Wilson
Best Syndication
Books on Dieting
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