Two good ways to relieve & reduce stress ….
Today's post: Wednesday, 11-14-2007
Most advice on relieving stress is too hard to use or doesn’t work well. So very few people get into doing those enough or well enough to actually get any stress relief.
The good news is that anything effective you do manage to do to lower your physical stress level has multiple health benefits such as making senility & heart attacks much less likely. It also improves your quality of life & makes you feel better. Dr Fred Luskin, in his book on stress, says it even helps you think better, be more creative, & solve problems better. That can come in very handy at work & in the rest of your life.
We will soon have a website that will sell one of the most effective stress relievers now known. We’ll announce it here when it’s up & running.
For now, here are two ideas you can use right now.
First is a stress reliever that’s fast, sixty seconds or less, that virtually everyone can do. This post has two versions.
Second, many people today with real estate loans with rising rates & tighter credit have money problems. The second part of this post is by one of the most effective & knowledgeable people in business on what actually works well to eliminate debt.
It does take a bit of time to do; but it works. Even better, once you begin making progress on the methods he outlines, your stress level will drop even before your debt problem is solved completely.
First. Here’s the immediate stress reliever info.:
This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.
“What's Stress Got to Do With It? By Dr. Jonny Bowden
What do allergies, asthma, hypertension, acne, insomnia, and obesity have in common?
They're just a few of the conditions that can be made worse by stress. Stress can trigger symptoms, increase their severity or frequency, and lengthen the time you suffer with them. Stress can also compromise recovery. No good holistic or "natural" approach to healing would ignore stress as a critical component of illness.
Specific emotional states like depression, for example, have been linked to "hard core" conditions like diabetes and heart disease. Conventional medicine continues to obsess over cholesterol as a "risk factor" for heart disease, meanwhile ignoring the very real - and much more serious - risks from trauma, divorce, anger, loneliness, grief, and abusive relationships.
Natural medicine worthy of the name can never ignore the role of stress - nor of attitude and emotions - in healing the body. Managing stress is as important to healing and health as anything you can take in pill form, from the most potent pharmaceutical drug to the gentlest herb.
Nearly all classic stress-management techniques - from yoga to meditation - center on deep breathing. Try the following technique to get started on your own personal stress-busting routine:
• Sit quietly in a comfortable position, hands resting on knees, palms up.
• Try to quiet your mind. It helps to think of a comforting phrase like "let go."
• Close your eyes and inhale deeply, concentrating on your breath.
• Hold for just a second. Then exhale deeply, saying your chosen phrase quietly in your mind.
• Repeat for 10 deep breaths, concentrating only on your breath and your phrase.
[Ed. Note: Dr. Jonny Bowden is a nationally known expert on weight loss, nutrition, and health. He's a board certified nutritionist with a master's degree in psychology, and the author of the best-selling book, The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth.”
X * X *X *
Our comment on the first method.: His method takes less than a minute & will work to some degree. I find it not quite powerful enough to take my mind off more severe stresses though.
Here’s one I found recently online & modified to make it easier to use that I believe I found on the health eletter from the Bottom Line reports people.
I find I often have to focus my mind more than just saying a phase to shut down thinking about what’s stressing me. This second method also is easy enough to do, particularly when you have practiced it a few times, that you can do it even when you are pretty stressed.
I find it works much better for higher levels of stress than just the single phrase since it takes my mind off the stress better & I relax more. It’s also a bit more active & less boring which makes it easier to do.
It’s a seven step process. To memorize the steps is about as easy as counting to 6 & then adding the last step which is how all the first 6 steps end.
Believe it or not, the best way to memorize something to make it easy to do & reliable to remember afterwards is to memorize the last step, then the last two, etc. Then once you start, the more you get into it the better you know it. This is a secret that professional musicians & animal trainers use.
First here are all 7 steps:
Close your eyes & breathe as smoothly & slowly as you can without straining at all to do so.
Then repeat these 7 sentences to yourself in order.
1. My arms & legs feel heavy. I am at peace.
2. My arms & legs feel warm. I am at peace.
3. My belly is warm. I am at peace.
4. My forehead feels cool. I am at peace.
5. My heart is beating smoothly & regularly. I am at peace.
6. My breathing is smooth & slow. I am at peace.
The seventh step is simply to then end by repeating, “I am at peace.“
This method is surprisingly powerful for something so quick.
The underlying suggestion of "I am at peace" repeated seven times plus the tiny bit of concentration needed to remember & say the first 6 steps in order plus the slight but definite slowing of your breathing are what make it work so well.
If it appeals to you at all, take the time to memorize it NOW. Or make an appointment with yourself on when you’ll come back to this post & do it.
I’ve re-arranged the original I read to make it easier to remember.
Take a piece of paper or use your keyboard. At the BOTTOM of the page, write the
6th step.
Then just above that write the fifth step. Then read them back in order. Say them or think them.
Then write the fourth step & read back steps 4, 5, & 6. For memorizing if you aren’t trying to relieve your stress as you go, you can skip the I am at Peace part since you probably already remember each step ends with that & it’s the seventh & last step.
Then keep going until you have all 6 on your list.
Then open a different file or turn the paper over & repeat them from memory. Cheating the first time through is OK if you initially block on what comes next. But this method works so well, you likely won’t need to!
Next, look at the list.
The first two are about how your arms feel.
The second one & third one are about how a body part feels warm.
And, the first 4 are about how a bodypart feels.
The last two are about the smoothness of your heart & breathing.
That also makes it easier to remember.
The next step is to close your eyes & try it.
After every one of the 6 steps you just memorized, say mentally, “I am at peace.”
Then do that one more time as the last step.
I find it works best if I breathe in slowly & smoothly during the first part & then breathe out when I say “I am at peace.”
Also note that the heart statement # 5. says “My heart is beating smoothly & regularly.”
Unlike your breathing which you can force to slow down a bit usually, your heart may be beating fast if you are stressed when you begin & the rate is not under your direct, short term control. So the fifth step simply says “My heart is beating smoothly & regularly.” That way, even if it’s still beating pretty fast, the statement will be true.
Second. Would having less debts &/or fewer or lower payments reduce your stress level a lot?
Here’s another article from Early to Rise:
This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.
“2 Steps You Can Take Today to Get Out of Debt Fast By Michael Masterson
Do you spend more than you make? I used to.
When I started working as an editor at a Washington, D.C.-based newsletter publishing company, my salary was $14,000. My wife was earning less than that. Our two salaries barely covered our basic living expenses. On top of that, I was attending graduate school and we were paying off student loans. Then our first son was born. For the first six months of his life, he slept in an open drawer in our bedroom.
Meanwhile, I was spending money I didn’t have on things I couldn’t afford. Struggling to pay for my education and brand-new family, I overspent because it seemed to provide some happiness, some relief.
But the thrill of buying stuff soon waned. Each new object brought less relief. Eventually, I realized that I was getting 80 percent of my pleasure from experiences that didn’t cost much money. But recognizing that you don’t need junk food and kicking the habit are two distinct things.
Here’s how I got myself out of debt:
First, I got rid of all my credit cards. I figured that what I couldn’t buy with cash was either worthless or worth saving for. Although the fear of going without credit was great, I never experienced any anxiety after I trashed the cards. It seemed like a drastic decision before I made it, but after half an hour I never gave it another thought.
The second thing I did to get out of debt was to start saving. I had made myself a promise that I would save a percentage of my take-home pay, but I never did it. The breakthrough came when I was talking to a friend about how the IRS manages to collect a big chunk of our income through the evil genius of withholding. I recognized I had to do the same thing to myself. The only way I was going to save money was through force.
The solution was available in a new-at-the-time savings-bank program, one that withdrew a set amount of money from my primary account every month and put it in another one. That program allowed me to gradually increase my saving from 10 percent of my income to 25 percent and pay down my debt in a few years.
If you are spending more than you are making, get rid of your credit cards. And to get used to spending less, remind yourself repeatedly that most of the junk you buy (a) becomes unused after a few months and (b) doesn’t provide you with much value anyway. Remember that the best things in life - the picnics you have with your family, the walks you take by yourself, the time you spend with your friends - are free, or nearly so.
Create a separate bank account that you’ll use to pay down your debt, or have your debts automatically deducted from the one account you have. You might even consider a debt consolidator. (But watch out. Most of them are crooked.)
Increase the amount of your take-home that goes into debt payments every month. You might start, for example, with 10 percent and then increase that by 5 percent a month. Six months from now, you could be living on half of what you spend now - and I’ll bet you will be feeling a lot better about yourself. You’ll have less stress, more energy, more confidence, and the beginnings of a lifelong habit of wealth building.
There are so many ways to save money. You can spend less on just about anything without giving up either the pleasure you take in buying or the quality you get from your purchases.
Instead of buying new clothes that will be out of style in a year, buy vintage clothing that looks great and distinguishes you.
Instead of signing a lease for an expensive car, buy something old but still good that has a personality.
Instead of going out to lunch every day, eat some fish or other protein at your desk. This is one of the things I did. By eating a can of tuna every day instead of going to lunch with my co-workers, I saved almost $2,500 in a single year. Plus, I went from staff editor to publisher by applying that extra lunch-hour time to improving the business.
Instead of plodding along in your same old job, make the decision to earn more money. I did that by making myself a more valuable employee. Until then, I was doing my job and leaving when my job was done. To prepare for my raise, I started working extra hours - even though I didn’t have many. I used those extra hours to help my fellow workers do their jobs (which they appreciated) and launch a few new products. I didn’t know anything about marketing at that time, but those two activities turned me into the go-to guy at the office.
Several months later, I walked into my boss’s office and told him everything that was wrong with the business. "You are not telling me something I don’t know," he said. "If you let me run this business I will fix all these problems," I promised.
He liked my moxie - and he had no one else to turn to - so he let me take over. With my added responsibilities, he gave me a raise. Every six months, I asked for more money, and I got it. In three years, I had nearly doubled my salary.
In addition to working extra hard at my primary job, I earned a second income by teaching a class of undergraduates early in the morning. It wasn’t a ton of money, but it helped pay off those debts.
I was working 14 hours a day, spending two hours with my family, and getting it done. It wasn’t easy but it was a lot of fun. What I discovered was that working hard when you are motivated is a lot more fun than hardly working when you don’t like your job. That was a lesson that made a big difference in my life. If you are in debt and have too little income, it’s a lesson you should teach yourself.
Work more. Save more. Spend less. Waste less. You’ll be out of debt and on your way to building real wealth in no time.
If you want to read more about wealth building, I recommend Automatic Wealth (because it’s my book).”
He also recommends some good books on buying stocks & investing in real estate.
(You can see the rest of his list in the 11-9-2007 issue of Early to Rise.)
But, he is writing to people that already read the Early to Rise email every day. Its daily articles on investing & making money are often both better & more current than the books he suggests.
Today's post: Wednesday, 11-14-2007
Most advice on relieving stress is too hard to use or doesn’t work well. So very few people get into doing those enough or well enough to actually get any stress relief.
The good news is that anything effective you do manage to do to lower your physical stress level has multiple health benefits such as making senility & heart attacks much less likely. It also improves your quality of life & makes you feel better. Dr Fred Luskin, in his book on stress, says it even helps you think better, be more creative, & solve problems better. That can come in very handy at work & in the rest of your life.
We will soon have a website that will sell one of the most effective stress relievers now known. We’ll announce it here when it’s up & running.
For now, here are two ideas you can use right now.
First is a stress reliever that’s fast, sixty seconds or less, that virtually everyone can do. This post has two versions.
Second, many people today with real estate loans with rising rates & tighter credit have money problems. The second part of this post is by one of the most effective & knowledgeable people in business on what actually works well to eliminate debt.
It does take a bit of time to do; but it works. Even better, once you begin making progress on the methods he outlines, your stress level will drop even before your debt problem is solved completely.
First. Here’s the immediate stress reliever info.:
This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.
“What's Stress Got to Do With It? By Dr. Jonny Bowden
What do allergies, asthma, hypertension, acne, insomnia, and obesity have in common?
They're just a few of the conditions that can be made worse by stress. Stress can trigger symptoms, increase their severity or frequency, and lengthen the time you suffer with them. Stress can also compromise recovery. No good holistic or "natural" approach to healing would ignore stress as a critical component of illness.
Specific emotional states like depression, for example, have been linked to "hard core" conditions like diabetes and heart disease. Conventional medicine continues to obsess over cholesterol as a "risk factor" for heart disease, meanwhile ignoring the very real - and much more serious - risks from trauma, divorce, anger, loneliness, grief, and abusive relationships.
Natural medicine worthy of the name can never ignore the role of stress - nor of attitude and emotions - in healing the body. Managing stress is as important to healing and health as anything you can take in pill form, from the most potent pharmaceutical drug to the gentlest herb.
Nearly all classic stress-management techniques - from yoga to meditation - center on deep breathing. Try the following technique to get started on your own personal stress-busting routine:
• Sit quietly in a comfortable position, hands resting on knees, palms up.
• Try to quiet your mind. It helps to think of a comforting phrase like "let go."
• Close your eyes and inhale deeply, concentrating on your breath.
• Hold for just a second. Then exhale deeply, saying your chosen phrase quietly in your mind.
• Repeat for 10 deep breaths, concentrating only on your breath and your phrase.
[Ed. Note: Dr. Jonny Bowden is a nationally known expert on weight loss, nutrition, and health. He's a board certified nutritionist with a master's degree in psychology, and the author of the best-selling book, The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth.”
X * X *X *
Our comment on the first method.: His method takes less than a minute & will work to some degree. I find it not quite powerful enough to take my mind off more severe stresses though.
Here’s one I found recently online & modified to make it easier to use that I believe I found on the health eletter from the Bottom Line reports people.
I find I often have to focus my mind more than just saying a phase to shut down thinking about what’s stressing me. This second method also is easy enough to do, particularly when you have practiced it a few times, that you can do it even when you are pretty stressed.
I find it works much better for higher levels of stress than just the single phrase since it takes my mind off the stress better & I relax more. It’s also a bit more active & less boring which makes it easier to do.
It’s a seven step process. To memorize the steps is about as easy as counting to 6 & then adding the last step which is how all the first 6 steps end.
Believe it or not, the best way to memorize something to make it easy to do & reliable to remember afterwards is to memorize the last step, then the last two, etc. Then once you start, the more you get into it the better you know it. This is a secret that professional musicians & animal trainers use.
First here are all 7 steps:
Close your eyes & breathe as smoothly & slowly as you can without straining at all to do so.
Then repeat these 7 sentences to yourself in order.
1. My arms & legs feel heavy. I am at peace.
2. My arms & legs feel warm. I am at peace.
3. My belly is warm. I am at peace.
4. My forehead feels cool. I am at peace.
5. My heart is beating smoothly & regularly. I am at peace.
6. My breathing is smooth & slow. I am at peace.
The seventh step is simply to then end by repeating, “I am at peace.“
This method is surprisingly powerful for something so quick.
The underlying suggestion of "I am at peace" repeated seven times plus the tiny bit of concentration needed to remember & say the first 6 steps in order plus the slight but definite slowing of your breathing are what make it work so well.
If it appeals to you at all, take the time to memorize it NOW. Or make an appointment with yourself on when you’ll come back to this post & do it.
I’ve re-arranged the original I read to make it easier to remember.
Take a piece of paper or use your keyboard. At the BOTTOM of the page, write the
6th step.
Then just above that write the fifth step. Then read them back in order. Say them or think them.
Then write the fourth step & read back steps 4, 5, & 6. For memorizing if you aren’t trying to relieve your stress as you go, you can skip the I am at Peace part since you probably already remember each step ends with that & it’s the seventh & last step.
Then keep going until you have all 6 on your list.
Then open a different file or turn the paper over & repeat them from memory. Cheating the first time through is OK if you initially block on what comes next. But this method works so well, you likely won’t need to!
Next, look at the list.
The first two are about how your arms feel.
The second one & third one are about how a body part feels warm.
And, the first 4 are about how a bodypart feels.
The last two are about the smoothness of your heart & breathing.
That also makes it easier to remember.
The next step is to close your eyes & try it.
After every one of the 6 steps you just memorized, say mentally, “I am at peace.”
Then do that one more time as the last step.
I find it works best if I breathe in slowly & smoothly during the first part & then breathe out when I say “I am at peace.”
Also note that the heart statement # 5. says “My heart is beating smoothly & regularly.”
Unlike your breathing which you can force to slow down a bit usually, your heart may be beating fast if you are stressed when you begin & the rate is not under your direct, short term control. So the fifth step simply says “My heart is beating smoothly & regularly.” That way, even if it’s still beating pretty fast, the statement will be true.
Second. Would having less debts &/or fewer or lower payments reduce your stress level a lot?
Here’s another article from Early to Rise:
This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.
“2 Steps You Can Take Today to Get Out of Debt Fast By Michael Masterson
Do you spend more than you make? I used to.
When I started working as an editor at a Washington, D.C.-based newsletter publishing company, my salary was $14,000. My wife was earning less than that. Our two salaries barely covered our basic living expenses. On top of that, I was attending graduate school and we were paying off student loans. Then our first son was born. For the first six months of his life, he slept in an open drawer in our bedroom.
Meanwhile, I was spending money I didn’t have on things I couldn’t afford. Struggling to pay for my education and brand-new family, I overspent because it seemed to provide some happiness, some relief.
But the thrill of buying stuff soon waned. Each new object brought less relief. Eventually, I realized that I was getting 80 percent of my pleasure from experiences that didn’t cost much money. But recognizing that you don’t need junk food and kicking the habit are two distinct things.
Here’s how I got myself out of debt:
First, I got rid of all my credit cards. I figured that what I couldn’t buy with cash was either worthless or worth saving for. Although the fear of going without credit was great, I never experienced any anxiety after I trashed the cards. It seemed like a drastic decision before I made it, but after half an hour I never gave it another thought.
The second thing I did to get out of debt was to start saving. I had made myself a promise that I would save a percentage of my take-home pay, but I never did it. The breakthrough came when I was talking to a friend about how the IRS manages to collect a big chunk of our income through the evil genius of withholding. I recognized I had to do the same thing to myself. The only way I was going to save money was through force.
The solution was available in a new-at-the-time savings-bank program, one that withdrew a set amount of money from my primary account every month and put it in another one. That program allowed me to gradually increase my saving from 10 percent of my income to 25 percent and pay down my debt in a few years.
If you are spending more than you are making, get rid of your credit cards. And to get used to spending less, remind yourself repeatedly that most of the junk you buy (a) becomes unused after a few months and (b) doesn’t provide you with much value anyway. Remember that the best things in life - the picnics you have with your family, the walks you take by yourself, the time you spend with your friends - are free, or nearly so.
Create a separate bank account that you’ll use to pay down your debt, or have your debts automatically deducted from the one account you have. You might even consider a debt consolidator. (But watch out. Most of them are crooked.)
Increase the amount of your take-home that goes into debt payments every month. You might start, for example, with 10 percent and then increase that by 5 percent a month. Six months from now, you could be living on half of what you spend now - and I’ll bet you will be feeling a lot better about yourself. You’ll have less stress, more energy, more confidence, and the beginnings of a lifelong habit of wealth building.
There are so many ways to save money. You can spend less on just about anything without giving up either the pleasure you take in buying or the quality you get from your purchases.
Instead of buying new clothes that will be out of style in a year, buy vintage clothing that looks great and distinguishes you.
Instead of signing a lease for an expensive car, buy something old but still good that has a personality.
Instead of going out to lunch every day, eat some fish or other protein at your desk. This is one of the things I did. By eating a can of tuna every day instead of going to lunch with my co-workers, I saved almost $2,500 in a single year. Plus, I went from staff editor to publisher by applying that extra lunch-hour time to improving the business.
Instead of plodding along in your same old job, make the decision to earn more money. I did that by making myself a more valuable employee. Until then, I was doing my job and leaving when my job was done. To prepare for my raise, I started working extra hours - even though I didn’t have many. I used those extra hours to help my fellow workers do their jobs (which they appreciated) and launch a few new products. I didn’t know anything about marketing at that time, but those two activities turned me into the go-to guy at the office.
Several months later, I walked into my boss’s office and told him everything that was wrong with the business. "You are not telling me something I don’t know," he said. "If you let me run this business I will fix all these problems," I promised.
He liked my moxie - and he had no one else to turn to - so he let me take over. With my added responsibilities, he gave me a raise. Every six months, I asked for more money, and I got it. In three years, I had nearly doubled my salary.
In addition to working extra hard at my primary job, I earned a second income by teaching a class of undergraduates early in the morning. It wasn’t a ton of money, but it helped pay off those debts.
I was working 14 hours a day, spending two hours with my family, and getting it done. It wasn’t easy but it was a lot of fun. What I discovered was that working hard when you are motivated is a lot more fun than hardly working when you don’t like your job. That was a lesson that made a big difference in my life. If you are in debt and have too little income, it’s a lesson you should teach yourself.
Work more. Save more. Spend less. Waste less. You’ll be out of debt and on your way to building real wealth in no time.
If you want to read more about wealth building, I recommend Automatic Wealth (because it’s my book).”
He also recommends some good books on buying stocks & investing in real estate.
(You can see the rest of his list in the 11-9-2007 issue of Early to Rise.)
But, he is writing to people that already read the Early to Rise email every day. Its daily articles on investing & making money are often both better & more current than the books he suggests.
posted by David at 1:16 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home